Iraq OKs Long-Term Checking of Arms Programs : Mideast: Monitoring is Gulf War cease-fire requirement. No lifting of embargo on Baghdad’s oil likely for now.

Iraq on Friday accepted long-term U.N. monitoring of its weapons programs, eliminating a major obstacle to the lifting of trade sanctions imposed after Baghdad’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Allowing long-term monitoring was one of the key requirements in the 1991 Persian Gulf War cease-fire agreements, which also called for elimination of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

The United States and other Security Council members have blocked any lifting of the punishing trade sanctions until Iraq complies fully with the cease-fire terms.

Baghdad, desperate to sell oil to shore up its crippled economy, requested that the council lift the oil embargo in exchange for its compliance.

But U.N. experts have said they would insist on having a monitoring program in place for some months before recommending an end to the embargo.

Iraq had been seeking assurances that the council would lift the oil embargo if it complied. But it apparently accepted the binding Security Council resolution on long-term monitoring without such assurances.

The resolution would allow international weapons inspectors to roam Iraq freely and for an indefinite period to prevent Iraq from again acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

“This is a major breakthrough. I do not want to underestimate its significance,” said Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. commission charged with eliminating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoun delivered a letter from Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf to the Security Council stating Iraq’s commitment.

The letter said that Iraq has decided “to accept the obligations (concerning mandatory long-term monitoring) . . . and to comply with the provisions of the plans for monitoring and verification,” as stated in the resolution.

Ekeus’ commission must declare to the Security Council that Iraq has fulfilled the requirements of the cease-fire resolution before the oil embargo can be lifted.

The oil embargo can be lifted separately from the other sanctions.