No commitment on scientist interviews

Senior Iraqi officials declined to commit Thursday to allowing weapons scientists to leave the country for interviews with United Nations arms inspectors as demanded by the Bush administration, saying President Saddam Hussain's government will "cross that bridge when we come to it."

The statement, by Saddam's main science advisers, suggested that Iraq hopes Hans Blix, chief of the UN arms inspection team, will shield it from U.S. pressure on the interviews.

So far, Blix has been reluctant to take Iraqi scientists and their families out of the country, under authority conferred on him by a November 8 Security Council resolution, despite repeated insistence by U.S. officials that interviews abroad represent the best way to get the truth about Iraqi chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.

The issue of interviewing the scientists outside Iraq has been identified by senior U.S. officials in Washington as a key to whether Saddam is judged to be complying with the UN resolution and, ultimately, whether the Bush administration decides on war to destroy his three-decade-old rule in Baghdad.

Senior aides to the Iraqi leader have said Iraq is compiling a list of scientists and technicians involved in Iraq's weapons programmes and will turn it over by the end of the month, as Blix requested last week.

However, a top aide dismissed what he called the "hypothetical question" of whether Iraq would comply if inspectors want to question the scientists outside Iraq.

"I'm not sure we'll face that because both of them, Blix and El Baradei, are lawyers and they know what that entails," said Gen. Amin Saadi, Saddam's top aid for weapons science.

He referred to Mohammed El Baradei, whose International Atomic Energy Agency is working alongside Blix's team, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).

Saadi said the prospect of taking scientists out of a sovereign nation presents "serious problems" under international law and expressed concern that Blix might be pressured into turning over a copy of Iraq's list of scientists to U.S. authorities.

"This is a confidential list," Saadi said. "Will he make it public? Will he give it to other countries?"

Iraqi authorities repeatedly have voiced fears that information gathered by UN weapons inspectors could be turned over to U.S. or other intelligence agencies.

Contacts between a previous UN inspection team and U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies were a major irritant before those inspectors were pulled out in 1998.

The scientist issue heated up as the Bush administration accused Iraq of already being in "material breach" of the UN resolution.