U.N. official Rolf Ekeus was due in Baghdad Friday for meetings on Iraq's biological weapons research that could determine the future of the five-year economic embargo of the country.
Ekeus, head of the U.N. commission supervising destruction of Iraq's nuclear, biological, chemical and ballistic missile military capacity, wants the government of Saddam Hussein to account for 17 tons of "growth material" that could have been used in a secret biological weapons program.Iraq has said its cooperation depends on the United Nations declaring investigations into the other weapons programs permanently closed and guaranteeing to lift the ban on oil exports imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
With splits appearing inside the U.N. Security Council over terms for easing the sanctions, Iraq was hopeful U.S. determination to keep the sanctions in place would be overcome by the more sympathetic view of France, Russia and China.