Deputy Premier Rejects Arms Team

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz rejected any new dispatch of U.N. weapon inspectors to his country, but he said Baghdad would hold talks with the United Nations. Aziz’s comments to reporters in Moscow, at the end of a two-day visit to Russia, followed talks at the U.N. aimed at resuming inspections and lifting sanctions imposed on Baghdad a decade ago. U.N. officials had said they hoped Iraq would agree to let inspectors return to Baghdad. But asked whether Baghdad would accept a mission under Hans Blix, head of a U.N. agency established to determine if Iraq has ended production of weapons of mass destruction, Aziz said sharply: “No.”