U.N. official: Inspections would boost Iraqi credibility

Dr. Hans Blix, U.N. chief weapons inspector, says there are 700 Iraqi sites that inspectors would like to view.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It would be in Iraq's interest to allow inspectors into the country to look for weapons of mass destruction and would help restore some confidence in its credibility, the chief weapons inspector for the United Nations said Sunday.

"They are saying very firmly they have no weapons of mass destruction," Dr. Hans Blix, in charge of weapons inspections for the international agency, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "So why not invite the professional inspectors?"

U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998 and have not yet been allowed to return.

In the last several months, Iraq has been more amenable about discussing inspections with U.N. officials, though it hasn't indicated any willingness to invite weapons inspectors, Blix said.

Iraq fears inspectors could also serve as spies, Blix said.

"If the inspectors come in one day as inspectors and the next day join national armies and tell the armies where targets are, this I can understand," Blix said.

Inspectors, he said, do not answer to politicians. "We do not respond to a government," Blix said. "We respond to the Security Council."

The White House has been considering possible military action against Iraq to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein. President Bush has called the nation part of an "axis of evil."

If confronted with evidence that Iraq possessed biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, inspectors "would go to the Security Council and place it before the council," Blix said.

Blix confirmed there are about 700 sites in Iraq the inspectors would like to view. He also said Iraq lied before the Persian Gulf War about its weapons development.