UNITED NATIONS -- After blocking discussions for nearly two years, the United States has quietly started low-key talks on ending the work of U.N. inspectors who are charged with dismantling Iraq's chemical, biological and long-range missile programs.
The Bush administration has come under pressure from the Iraqi government, which has been waging a public campaign to stop using Iraqi oil revenue to finance the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and wrap up its operations.
"This is a very important issue and one that we have been discussing for quite some time with the Iraqis and now with key members of the Security Council," Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said Friday. "Those discussions continue."
American officials had said repeatedly that the United States wouldn't formally discuss the future of the commission, known as UNMOVIC, until after the U.S. weapons search in Iraq was complete. In an Oct. 6 report, chief U.S. arms hunter Charles Duelfer discredited Bush's stated rationale for invading Iraq, saying his Iraq Survey Group found no weapons of mass destruction in the country.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/02/26/us_talks_of_ending_iraq_inspectors_work/