UNITED NATIONS — Announcing that U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq will likely resume on Nov. 27, chief inspector Hans Blix started his journey to Baghdad on Friday with a warning to Saddam Hussein that the Security Council won't tolerate "cat and mouse" games.
Saddam's government told Iraqis on Friday they must welcome Blix and other inspectors who are scheduled to arrive Monday after a nearly four-year break. While the government said it hoped to spare Iraqis from war, it warned them to prepare for the worst.
President Bush insists Iraq must disarm or face almost certain war.
"You do not want Saddam Hussein, who is a homicidal dictator, armed with a nuclear weapon in the Middle East, which is the most volatile region in the world," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Friday.
Blix told a news conference Friday the Security Council was offering Iraq "a last opportunity" to declare all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, and he urged the Iraqi government to examine its archives, storage facilities and stocks before submitting its declaration to inspectors by Dec. 8.
In a letter Wednesday accepting the council's tough resolution on the return of inspectors, Iraq said it will prove that it is weapons-free.
Blix said Iraq still has a few weeks to change its position, but if it maintains that it has no weapons of mass destruction, "it will be the moment for those who claim they have evidence to consider whether they put that evidence on the table."
He urged the United States or any country with knowledge of secret Iraqi weapons programs to hand over evidence to inspectors. The United States believes Iraq has been illegally rearming for several years.
Inspectors have "a great many questions" about Iraq's weapons programs, but since they have been barred from the country since December 1998, they have not been able to answer them — or verify U.S. allegations, Blix said.
Once inside, Blix's team will conduct searches to determine the accuracy of reports that Iraq has hidden banned weapons underground or on trucks.
Omissions in Iraq's declaration could be reported to the Security Council, as could delays in gaining access to sites which could give the Iraqis time to hide documents, vials and other banned weapons material.
"Certainly, cat and mouse is something that I'm sure will not be tolerated in the future," he said.
Still, Blix said: "We are not instructed to carry out provocative inspections. We perceive our task as carrying out effective inspections. Otherwise, they will not be credible and that will be of no use to Iraq or to anyone else."
When inspections began in 1991, after a U.S.-led coalition routed Iraqi troops from Kuwait, Iraq was also required to make a declaration of its weapons programs. The new resolution threatens Iraq with serious consequences if it fails again to accurately report its holdings.
"We are now getting back to a declaration which, in the Security Council's view, offers Iraq a last opportunity to declare what it has. Iraq's declaration is a very important document, and we hope that they take it very seriously," Blix said.
The chief inspector said his staff would try to pay attention to Iraqi concerns about working during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but he stressed that no sites, including mosques, are excluded from inspections.
Blix said he will present the Security Council with any evidence of Iraqi weapons programs or infractions. Then it would be up to the council to determine whether Iraq's actions merit a military response.
"We do not judge whether something constitutes a material breach," of Iraq's obligations, he said.
Blix said he hopes that Iraq's disarmament can be achieved peacefully — but that depends on the Iraqi government. He urged the country's leaders to be open, transparent and candid about any illicit weapons programs.
The declaration, laid out in a tough new Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on Nov. 8, will be compared with previous data inspectors have on Iraq.
After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the Security Council imposed economic sanctions that cannot be lifted until U.N. weapons inspectors verify that Iraq is free of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and of missiles that could deliver them.
Blix said inspectors would consider the potential Nov. 27 start date as their first day of work under the terms of the resolution, which calls for him to report his findings 60 days later.
Blix headed to Paris on Friday for talks with French officials, and was bound for Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sunday. He was scheduled to arrive in Baghdad on Monday with Mohamed ElBaradei, his counterpart at the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is in charge of nuclear inspections.
They will be accompanied by a small advance team charged with reopening the office used by the previous inspections regime and setting up new secure phone lines and transportation.