UN Weapons team Arriving in Baghdad earlier
Mr Blix and his team arrived in Iraq earlier today to investigate whether the country has been manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
President Saddam Hussein last week decided to allow the team to enter Iraq. Among the team who arrived this morning was the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El Baradei.
The UN team will work from its old offices at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad before starting initial work.
Mr Blix said the inspectors would be fair but firm. He said their mission gave Iraq an opportunity to move back towards full membership of the international community. A spokesman for the inspection team, Mark Gwozdecky, said the inspectors were fully prepared for the task ahead.
Last inspection in 1998The UN lost patience in 1998 with what it judged as a lack of co-operation from President Saddam Hussein over the inspections, which began after his defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. The UN subsequently pulled its inspectors out of Iraq.
The United States has said that if Baghdad does not co-operate this time, it will take military action against Iraq.
Resolution unfair says IraqIraq has said it will co-operate with the inspections but has called the UN resolution unfair.
One Iraqi member of Parliament, Dr Mohammed Mustapha Adami, said Baghdad was unhappy due to claims that foreign intelligence agents were among the previous group of weapons inspectors that visited Baghdad under the umbrella of the UN Special Commission known as UNSCOM.
