Baghdad OKs U-2 flights

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq approved U-2 surveillance flights on Monday -- a key demand of inspectors searching for banned weapons -- as major European countries sought to slow the march to a military showdown.\nThe developments came a day after the chief U.N. inspectors said they sense a "good beginning" and a changed "positive attitude" in Baghdad toward their job of ensuring Iraq is free of banned arms.\nThe announcement by the Baghdad government was an attempt to stave off military action by the United States. President Bush has repeatedly said that "the game is over" for Saddam Hussein.\nWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked about the U-2 flights, said, "The bottom line is the president is interested in disarmament. This does nothing to change that."\nThe Bush administration had scoffed at a separate concession from Baghdad late last week, when four Iraqi scientists were each interviewed without the presence of another Iraqi.\n"The inspectors are now free to use the American U-2s as well as French and Russian planes," Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed al-Douri, told The Associated Press, one day after chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei wrapped up critical talks in Baghdad.\nThe Iraqis had balked at allowing the American spy planes to fly in support of U.N. inspections unless the United States and Britain suspended air patrols over northern and southern Iraq while the U-2 was aloft.\nIn a letter sent Monday to U.N. weapons inspectors, Iraq also pledged to pass legislation next week outlawing the use of weapons of mass destruction,\nAs tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel train in the Persian Gulf region for possible war, Bush said Monday that Saddam is positioning his military troops in civilian areas in a plan to "blame coalition forces" for casualties in the event of war.\n"Saddam Hussein regards the Iraqi people as human shields, entirely expendable, when their suffering serves his purposes," Bush told an audience of religious broadcasters in Nashville, Tenn. "America views the Iraqi people as human beings who have suffered long enough."\nThe remarks were the latest step by Bush to prepare America and its allies for potential war with Iraq. Though Bush says he has not decided whether military action is necessary, senior advisers assert there is little hope of finding another way to disarm Iraq.\nBush spoke amid a flurry of diplomatic activity as the United States, its reluctant allies and Baghdad itself sought to sway world opinion.\nFrance, Russia and Germany issued a joint declaration Monday calling for strengthened U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac, reading the declaration in the presence of visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin, said waging war to achieve to neutralize Saddam's weapon's capability should be considered only as a last resort.\nThe division was also reflected at NATO, where France, Germany and Belgium blocked alliance efforts to begin planning for possible Iraqi attacks against Turkey. NATO would have automatically begun planning for the defense of Turkey, which fears retaliation from neighboring Iraq in case of an invasion, early Monday if no country protested the move.\nBut France vetoed the effort and was backed by Belgium and Germany. They argued that supporting NATO's efforts would force the crisis into a "logic of war."\nLater Monday, Turkey requested emergency consultations under NATO's mutual defense treaty, believed to be the first time in the 53-year history of the alliance any nation has done so.\nThe Baghdad meetings that ended Sunday were a prelude to crucial reports the two chief inspectors must file with the U.N. Security Council on Friday, new assessments of Iraqi cooperation that will help the council decide on next steps in the months-long Iraq crisis.\nThe Iraqis gave the chief inspectors more documents said to clarify lingering questions about 1980s chemical and biological weapons, and contended they would establish commissions to search for additional documents and any leftover weapons.\n"I'm beginning to see some positive attitude," Blix said in an AP interview at the end of the talks.\n"We see a very good beginning, and would like to see much more in the coming weeks," U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said.\nIraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on NBC's Today Show that Iraq is ready to offer "specific answers" to direct questions on banned weapons.\n"I have to tell you -- and I want the American public to listen to this very carefully: If Mr. Bush is genuinely concerned about weapons of mass destruction, he should give weapons inspectors enough time to continue their work," he said.\nThe Security Council banned Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and longer-range missiles after Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. During the 1990s, U.N. inspectors oversaw destruction of the great bulk of chemical and biological weapons, and dismantled Iraq's program to build nuclear bombs.\nThe U.N. experts resumed inspections last Nov. 27, after a four-year gap, to certify that Iraq has no leftover weapons and did not restart the arms programs during the U.N. absence.\nBlix had complained in a Security Council report last month that the Iraqis were not cooperating on "substance" -- by supplying evidence to clear up remaining questions about VX nerve agent, anthrax and some other doomsday weapons developed in the 1980s. Iraq has not documented all its reported destruction of VX, for example.\nReturning to Baghdad for their second round of talks in less than three weeks, the chief inspectors were looking for documents, witnesses or forensic evidence to close such gaps.\nAt a news conference after Sunday's sessions, Blix and ElBaradei reported receiving documents -- the Iraqis said there were 24 -- offering "explanations," if not hard evidence, regarding outstanding issues on anthrax, VX nerve gas and Iraqi missile development. Blix said the documents would have to be studied by his experts to determine their value.\nIraq will allow inspectors to analyze the sites where it claims to have destroyed old chemical and biological weapons, a spokesman for the U.N. nuclear agency chief said Monday.\nThe Iraqis also told the inspection chiefs they would establish two commissions, one to search for any leftover weapons or components nationwide, and the other to track down any more relevant documents.