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Inspectors: Iraq not doing enough
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Iraq needs to show "drastic change" in cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors, chief nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei says. ElBaradei, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General, was speaking after talks with U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in London on Thursday. Arriving at Downing Street for the talks, ElBaradei said it was "important we have a good conversation before we go to Baghdad." Asked whether he thought a US-led military attack on Saddam Hussein's regime was inevitable, ElBaradei said: "No, I don't think so." The meeting took place a day after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the U.N. Security Council that Iraq is not complying with U.N. mandates that it disarm. (Full story) Also speaking to reporters in Downing Street, Blix said he was unsatisfied with all Iraq's responses on the weapons it possesses. And he warned said a swifter, hard-line U.S. agenda to resolve the Iraqi crisis could take precedence if U.N. diplomacy fails. "There are two clocks ... Washington time and this is U.N. time," Blix said aboard his plane en route to London. "I, of course, am operating under a resolution from 1999 that tells me I have to give a quarterly report to the Security Council the first of March." "It's certainly very important, desirable that the facts be on the table," Blix said. "Of course, one would have to scrutinise this as well." U.N. resolutions also call for another report on Iraqi compliance later in the month, he said. "That clock is still ticking, but it may be the other watch will take over," said Blix, head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. Blix and ElBaradei are to travel to Baghdad this weekend -- their third trip in two months. Blix was non-committal when asked if it would be the chief inspectors' last trip to Iraq. "Well, I don't know," he said. "It could be if the clock is ticking on and if the Iraqis are not helpful in the matter of substance then I would be concerned it would be the last one." "But if there is good cooperation and we really feel we're getting closer ... to ensure the remaining things of weapons of mass destruction either are gone and it is proven or that they're doing it ... well then, it could be a different direction," Blix said.
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