- (AFP) -- Russia announced that it was ready to send military
personnel to Iraq to take part in UN weapons inspections in an apparent
bid to stave off the threat of US-led military action against Baghdad.
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- The deputy chief of the general staff, General Yury Baluyevsky,
said Russian representatives had been dispatched to the United Nations
Security Council in New York to discuss a role for the Russian military
in the UN inspections.
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- "A team of experts from the foreign and defence
ministries flew to New York yesterday to hold consultations on the practical
involvement of Russian military in international inspectors' continued
monitoring in Iraq," the top Russian defence official told news agencies.
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- The Russian announcement came after Chinese state media
said on Monday that Beijing was willing to offer personnel and technical
support to the UN inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq.
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- China and Russia, both permanent veto-wielding members
of the UN Security Council, are seeking to avert a looming US invasion
of Iraq and extend the work of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq.
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- Baluyevsky said Russian servicemen would not take part
in any hostilities in Iraq.
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- "If Russian armed forces have a role, it will be
as monitors assisting the international inspectors who are working in Iraq,"
said Baluyevsky, without giving any further details.
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- There are already Russian experts among the UN inspectors
in Iraq but these are employed in a private capacity by the United Nations.
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- Baluyevsky recalled that Russia had prepared an Antonov-30B
spy plane "to carry out aerial reconnaissance in Iraq and to pass
on information to international inspectors".
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- Last month Moscow announced it had reached a preliminary
agreement with the United Nations on the deployment of a Russian spy plane
over Iraq but further talks were due to be held in New York on the issue.
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- Russian defence ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Sedov told
AFP the delegation's discussions would focus on the deployment of the Antonov-30B
plane.
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- If approved by the United Nations, this would require
the presence in Iraq of technical support staff and a replacement crew,
he said. Russia is one of several nations volunteering to offer its planes.
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- Sedov added that Moscow had other suggestions for involving
Russian military in the inspection process but these were at a preliminary
stage.
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- "In our consultations we may discuss some other
possibilities (for Russian assistance in UN inspections) but this is the
only concrete proposal so far," he said.
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- The chief UN weapons inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohamed
ElBaradei, are due to give their latest update to the Security Council
on Friday.
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- Washington and its allies have submitted a draft UN Security
Council resolution which would, if passed, effectively pave the way for
war on Iraq.
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- They hope for a vote on the resolution in the first half
of March.
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