March 29, 1999
Web posted at: 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- A U.N. disarmament review panel concluded Monday that an intrusive weapons inspection and monitoring system is still needed in Iraq. Without one, Iraq could soon rebuild weapons of mass destruction, the experts said.

This 20-member panel is one of three appointed by the U.N. Security Council to reach a consensus on Iraq policy after U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspectors were withdrawn last December.

The Security Council also has established a panel on Iraq's humanitarian problems and a third on the status of prisoners and property seized after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The disarmament panel report concluded that "to be effective, any (new) system has to be deployed on the ground, which is impossible without Iraqi acceptance."

"One way or the other Iraq will have to be engaged by the Security Council, sooner rather than later," the report said.

In addition to the Security Council, the panel's conclusions were sent to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

'Suspicious and malicious'

Unless there is a substantive change in position between Baghdad and Washington, little progress on restarting inspections seems imminent, ambassadors say.

U.S.-British airstrikes launched last December have been followed by almost three months of daily hostilities in the northern and southern no-fly zones over Iraq.

Iraq also has labeled a recent British proposal to rein in Iraq's illegal oil exports "suspicious and malicious."

British Ambassador to the U.N. Jeremy Greenstock proposed regulating Iraq's illegal oil trade with Turkey, estimated at $400 million a year, in exchange for allowing Baghdad to delay Gulf War reparation payments.

Greenstock also proposed that the United Nations take over distribution of medical supplies in all of Iraq, putting Baghdad on notice for lags in getting medicines out of warehouses.

Under current U.N. rules, Iraq is allowed to sell up to $5.26 billion in oil every six months. Two-thirds of the revenues must be used to buy food, medicine and other essentials.

"It is clear that the unofficial British paper aims at imposing a complete tutelage on Iraq ... and holding its people hostage to the unjust embargo forever," an Iraqi Information Ministry spokesman told the Iraqi news agency Monday.

The official also said that Baghdad was not concerned with the conclusions of the three U.N. panels and doubted they will have positive results.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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