By Dominic Evans
Reuters
Tuesday, December 16, 1997; Page A16

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 15—Chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler said today that his talks with Iraqi officials on dismantling Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction have yielded little progress.

Butler, speaking after three hours of talks with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, said Iraq is insisting the inspection teams will not be allowed into "presidential sites" despite U.N. demands for unrestricted access throughout Iraq.

Butler said he also was disappointed by Iraq's failure to provide promised new information on its biological and chemical weapons programs. "Biology didn't present anything new at all. In fact [Iraq gave] a rather defiant statement that said, `Nothing. There is nothing,' " Butler said. "Chemistry: We are still arguing about the very important nerve gas called VX."

Butler heads the U.N. Special Commission charged with disarming Iraq's biological, chemical and ballistic missile arsenal under 1991 Gulf War cease-fire terms. Iraq needs a clean bill of health from the commission before the United Nations lifts crippling economic sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Butler met Aziz Sunday night for technical talks on Iraq's weapons program, but their meeting today focused on U.N. demands for unrestricted access throughout Iraq. Butler said Aziz told him inspectors will "never" be allowed into presidential sites.

"Iraq has said that will not occur. That is the question that the [U.N.] Security Council will have to consider -- whether it is prepared to accept that or not," Butler told Worldwide Television News. Butler, who is scheduled to leave Tuesday, has described his four-day mission, following last month's crisis over Iraq's expulsion of American inspectors, as a "defining moment" in the U.N. arms inspectors' relations with Baghdad.

Iraqi officials have accused Butler of following an agenda dictated by Washington, which still has a hefty military presence in the region and says it has not ruled out using force if Iraq defies the United Nations again.

"We made clear to the Iraqis that the Security Council gave very clear instructions about what we were to seek in regards to all the sites that we wish to inspect," Butler's deputy, Charles Duelfer, said.

Duelfer said Iraq had given a clearer picture in the talks of how it defines three categories of inspections sites -- "normal" sites, where the U.N. commission has ongoing inspections; "sensitive" sites, which touch on its security concerns; and presidential sites. "On the sites that we are permitted to inspect they have expressed a willingness to be flexible," he said.

The issue of access has dogged the inspectors since they started their work six years ago. They say Iraq has consistently tried to conceal elements of its weapons programs and has blocked them from sites where those items may have been hidden. Iraq in turn accuses the U.N. commission of dragging out its work to extend the sanctions on Iraq indefinitely. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Mohammad Rasheed, who took part in today's talks, said last week that there is a "red line" around presidential sites that the inspectors have no right to cross.