Sources: Iraqi official, U.N. chief to meet

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plan to meet Tuesday, U.N. sources said.

They are expected to discuss weapons inspections and the relationship between the governments of Iraq and the United States, which has been discussing the feasibility of removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power.

Aziz and Annan both are in Johannesburg, attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Iraqi officials have already met three times with Annan this year, but the two sides failed to arrange for the return of weapons inspectors.

The United States and the United Nations argue the inspectors must have unfettered access to be effective.

Aziz: Return of inspectors 'a non-starter'

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In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Aziz flatly denied that his nation has weapons of mass destruction or that it is developing nuclear arms, and said his country has no ties to the terrorist network al Qaeda, which has members in northern Iraq.

Though President Bush has said no decision has been made about whether to attack Iraq, Vice President Cheney called for pre-emptive action in two speeches last week to veterans groups.

Bush and Cheney have accused Iraq of amassing biological and chemical weapons and trying to acquire nuclear arms, and have cited those threats in their call for a regime change in Iraq.

"What Mr. Cheney is saying is baseless," Aziz said. "He hasn't provided any solid evidence to back his allegations."

Aziz invited U.S. representatives to determine for themselves whether the country has stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.

"We asked the American Congress to send a fact-finding mission equipped with whatever equipment they can get from the American government," he said. "They can bring with them experts in all the areas of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons."

But Aziz said it would be pointless for weapons inspectors to return to Iraq.

"It's a non-starter because it's not going to bring about a conclusion to the controversy," he said.

Aziz singled out Hans Blix, the U.N. team's chief weapons inspector.

"We do not trust that Mr. Blix and his group are going to bring a conclusion within a reasonable time so that the United States and everybody in the world should know that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," he said.

The U.N. arms inspectors were in Iraq for more than seven years. Without their certification that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, the United Nations won't lift economic sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Aziz said that Iraq's neighbors don't share the U.S. government's preoccupation with whether Iraq has amassed weapons of mass destruction.