Iraq OKs Long-Term Weapons Checks : Mideast: Monitoring is Gulf War cease-fire requirement. No end to oil embargo likely for now.

Iraq on Friday formally agreed to accept long-term monitoring of its weapons programs, meeting a key U.N. demand for lifting the oil embargo imposed after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait more than three years ago.

Iraq’s decision marked a departure from its previous policy of refusing to allow a system of long-term monitoring until the Security Council agreed to lift the oil embargo. It brought Baghdad significantly closer to meeting the array of demands contained in the Security Council’s Resolution 687, which established the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

A British official, however, said that while the Iraqi offer was “good news,” Iraq had yet to meet all of the council’s demands. A State Department declaration Friday said Iraq “has made and broken many promises in the past” and “must now demonstrate on the ground, over a sustained period . . . its full cooperation. . . . Any discussion of lifting sanctions is clearly premature.”

But Rolf Ekeus, who is charged with overseeing the United Nations’ efforts to destroy Iraq’s dangerous weapons, portrayed Baghdad’s decision to accept the long-term monitoring as a significant breakthrough. “This (has been) a major, if not the major, obstacle to implementation of the Gulf War cease-fire resolution,” Ekeus told reporters.

Iraq made its retreat in a letter from Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf to the current president of the Security Council, Jose Luis Jesus of Cape Verde. It said Iraq “expresses the hope that after this positive step on its part, and after all the other positive developments which the documents of the United Nations have confirmed officially, that the Security Council implements its obligations toward Iraq as stated in Resolution 687.”

The most important council demands relate to the destruction of Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic weapons as well as to procedures for long-term oversight. Diplomats say that while Iraq has made strides in meeting much of these demands, there are still gaps in the United Nations’ knowledge of Baghdad’s chemical and biological materials.

U.N. officials are still assessing the most recent information Iraq handed over relating to its arms suppliers and those companies that helped it build its weapons systems. A British official said that, while Iraq has made much information available, there still appeared to be omissions.

Diplomats have said that even if Iraq provides all the necessary information, there is no likelihood of an immediate lifting of the embargo on oil, Baghdad’s main economic lifeline. Iraq’s economy has been shattered by the lack of oil revenues. Its currency has plunged, and inflation has soared.

Diplomats said the Gulf War allies appear to differ on how to deal with Iraq. France favors a narrow reading of Resolution 687 that would assess Iraq’s compliance only on arms-related matters. But Britain and the United States keep open the possibility of requiring Iraq to improve its human rights performance and to formally recognize the U.N.-delineated Iraq-Kuwait border.

The resolution calls on Iraq to pay for the costs of the monitoring program. While the United Nations will not be able to collect the money right now, the resolution states that it would be able to claim the money from future oil revenue.