Britain has proposed the UN Security Council resume "reinforced" weapons inspections of Iraq, the British ambassador to the UN, Mr Jeremy Greenstock, said yesterday.
The new inspection regime would be "a reinforced system of ongoing monitoring and verification" capable of carrying out "intrusive inspections," according to a draft resolution.
"The aim of this resolution is to establish a new foundation for the council's approach to Iraq," Mr Greenstock said in a statement.
The British proposal, which is being sponsored by the Netherlands, would replace the UN Special Commission - set up in 1991 to monitor Iraqi disarmament - with a "Commission on Investigation, Inspection and Monitoring" (UNCIIM).
Under the plan, Iraq would give UNCIIM inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" to any site or government official in Iraq.
The proposal stressed that while "conditions do not exist" for the lifting of UN sanctions on Iraq, the bi-yearly $5.2 billion limit placed on Iraq's crude oil exports could be eliminated to improve the living conditions of the Iraqi people.
A separate Russian plan calls for the lifting of UN-sponsored sanctions on Iraq altogether, while introducing a "reinforced" programme of control and verification to ensure it does not rebuild an arsenal of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
Of this, the US ambassador to the UN, Mr Peter Burleigh, told journalists: "I don't think it is a serious proposal, we're not going to treat it as such."
As for the British-Dutch proposal, "We have problems with it," Mr Burleigh said.