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Iraqi paper slams UN chief

BAGHDAD: A leading Iraqi newspaper blamed Washington on Saturday for the UN Secretary-General's difficulties in finding an acceptable chairman for a new arms inspection agency.

"Kofi Annan has been unable to lift the current deep darkness prevailing in the United Nations," commented Babel, the newspaper of President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.

"Frustration and failure is the character of the world body, caused by pressure from the United States and the Zionist entity (Israel)," the paper said in a front-page editorial.

Annan has been trying to decide on a new chairman to supervise disarmament in Iraq. The United States insists whoever is appointed strictly enforces Security Council resolutions.

Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus has been apparently ruled out as head of a new arms agency for Iraq as UN Security Council members were deadlocked in choosing a candidate ahead of their Sunday deadline.

The discounting of Ekeus, who was the first chief UN inspector from 1991 to 1997, appeared to leave other main candidates in the running, but there was no agreement on them either, diplomats said.

Annan had hoped to announce on Friday his choice of a new chairman for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) created by a Security Council resolution on December 17 as a successor to the UN Special Commission or UNSCOM.

Names frequently mentioned are: Pasi Patokallio, Finland's ambassador to Israel, Celso Amorim of Brazil, Mark Moher of Canada and Istvan Gyarmati of Hungary.

"Among the hot list of the canadidates are those from NATO member states which Baghdad will not accept at all," Babel said.

Iraq has not permitted inspectors to enter the country since they withdrew in December 1998 shortly before the United States and Britain launched air strikes against Iraqi targets on the grounds that Baghdad had failed to cooperate with UN weapons teams.

Baghdad has rejected the new arms body, saying it is no difference from the previous one.

"Choosing this or that name to chair it can mean something, but the conclustion is that the whole commission is a failure and it has born dead," Babel said.-Reuters