Butler speaks in Baghdad Thursday

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Arriving in the Iraqi capital Thursday with a three-page list of demands detailing what the Iraqis must do to bring to a close the U.N.'s seven-year inspection of its weapons programs, the chief weapons inspector said with Baghdad's help, his work in Iraq could be nearing an end.

"I think we're set fair to bring these things to conclusion in not too many months," Richard Butler, director of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), told reporters.

Butler, charged with overseeing the dismantling of Iraq's chemical, biological and ballistic missile weapons programs, was to meet with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz Thursday and with other Iraqi officials on Saturday and Sunday.

"I think we are set for now to have a good clear and specific focus this weekend on what needs to be done in the months ahead," Butler said before his meeting with Aziz.

He also said that Baghdad had cooperated well with UNSCOM inspectors since U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with Iraqi officials, and signed an agreement, in February. 128K/11 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

Excavation work at a site outside Baghdad, where Iraq said it had destroyed missile warheads, was going well, Butler said.

"That work is going splendidly. We're very happy with it. It's near an end," he said.

UNSCOM inspectors dig up destroyed warheads for analysis

Butler said he would be giving the Iraqis lab results on destroyed special warheads that UNSCOM teams dug up from Iraqi sands. The lab results will detail what kind of chemical or biological agent may have been carried on the warheads.

For this trip, Butler said he was accompanied by 18 senior U.N. arms experts -- the largest UNSCOM team in "a very long time."

The arms experts are armed with satellite images, charts and other documents to back their claims that Iraq has not been forthright about its controversial weapons programs.

Baghdad has said for some time that it has complied with the U.N.'s disarmament mandate, issued after the 1991 Gulf War, and that the international community should lift economic sanctions against Iraq.

Aziz said Wednesday that Baghdad was 99 percent of the way towards proving to UNSCOM that it had destroyed all the banned weapons.

Over the weekend, Butler plans to present his "definitive list" to Iraqi officials. The list is like a roadmap, which, Butler says, will chart a course to quickly resolve unanswered questions.

UNSCOM inspectors work in Iraq

Among Butler's demands of Iraq:

• Provide documentation on domestic production of long-range missiles.
• Prove that it dismantled unaccounted-for chemical munitions, including 155mm mustard gas shells, as well as chemical and biological aerial bombs.
• Fully account for its past activities in producing the chemical agent VX.
• Provide details of its acquisition of material, agents and munitions for its biological program.

UNSCOM says it still knows relatively little about Iraq's biological program, which Baghdad denied for the first four years of UNSCOM's work.

Meanwhile, Iraq's influential Babil newspaper, owned by Saddam Hussein's son Odai, wrote Thursday that it was time Iraq stopped "courting this mad dog," referring to Butler.

The Iraqi press frequently refers to Butler as a mad dog.

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