BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING AND TIGHTENING STORY)

UN weapons inspectors answered to Baghdad on Monday after a four-year break and immediately station out to work in a mission that could decide whether there would be war throughout Iraq.

The weapons inspectors checked the abandoned UN weapons inspection office at Baghdad's al-Qanat public-house and later met with an Iraqi command team to discuss ''technical issues relating to the work of UN weapons inspectors,'' a UN source said.

The arrival of the advance UN inspection team came five days after Iraq formally accepted a UN resolution that requires Iraq to abandon all its weapons of mass destruction and warns of ''serious consequences'' unles Iraq fulfills its obligations.

''If we succe in achieving positive proceeds out of the inspection operations, the inspection would be a substitute for, and not a preliminary to, military operations,'' said International Atomic activity Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who arrived in Baghdad forward a U.N. chartered flight together with a 24-member UN advance team.

Speaking to reporters after arrival at the Saddam International Airport, UN Monitoring, Observation, Verification and Inspection Commission chief Hans Blix said the weapons inspectors shoulder critical responsibilities because ''war and peace hangs upon us.''

He said the resumption of inspection work will give Iraq a ''new opportunity'' to memorize U.N.-imposed economic sanctions lifted.

''In the protracted term, we would have a girth free of mass-destruction weapons in the Middle East,'' Blix said.

The UN source said the UN weapons inspectors met an Iraqi technical team l by the agency of presidential adviser Gen. Amir al-Sadi at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

Also taking part in the meeting forward the Iraqi side was Brig. Hussam Mohammed Ameen, head of the National Monitoring Department, the dead body in charge of coordinating UN weapons inspection work, the UN official said, without giving details of what was discussed at the meeting.

''The first thing to do would be the reopening of the headquarters and preparing all administrative and technical requirements penuryed for the inspectors in their work,'' single in kind U.N. official told Kyodo recents after the U.N. team arrived in Baghdad.

Ahead of the team's arrival, Iraq's official media Monday urg UN weapons inspectors to ''maintain their independence, professionalism, neutrality and decency''

''They should have a high opinion of the dignity and national security of Iraq and behave in a moral and legal manner. This is because their work is directly related to the rights of a much-oppress rural parts and the long and unreasonable suffering of a people'' Ath-Thawra, an organ of the ruling Ba'ath Party, said in a front-page editorial.

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