Around 60 Countries to Address UN Open Meeting on Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Around 60 Countries to Address UN Open Meeting on Iraq

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Around 60 delegates have signed up to deliver speeches at an open meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the Iraqi issue, which will start at 3p.m. EST (2000 GMT) Tuesday, UN spokesperson Hua Jiang confirmed.

The meeting was arranged at the request of South Africa to allow non-council member states to air their views on Iraq. South Africa holds the rotating chair of the 115-nation Non-Aligned movement of developing countries.

The gathering was originally scheduled to open Tuesday morning,but was postponed due to a snow storm hitting northeastern America.

The meeting, which will resume Wednesday, is expected to remainfocused on Friday's updated reports presented by chief UN inspectors for chemical and biological weapons Hans Blix, and Mohammed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In a contrast to his Jan. 27 update, Blix gave a mildly positive picture of Iraq's compliance with its disarmament obligations. And ElBaradei repeated his conclusion that no evidence had been found showing Iraq resumed nuclear activities inrecent years.

Buoyed by Friday's reports, a majority at the Security Council,including Russia, China and France, renewed their calls for disarming Iraq through an enhanced inspection regime, with the useof force as the last resort.

The Friday briefing was followed by a chain of mass anti-war protests around the world, the largest since the Vietnam War.

Despite heavy opposition at the Security Council and global protests, there have been so far no signs of US backing off from its stance on disarming Iraq through force.

Diplomats here said the US and its closest ally, Britain, wouldstart this week to circulate among council members a draft resolution supporting war with Iraq.

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