United Nations weapons inspectors prepared on Tuesday to launch a crucial mission in Iraq, with their chief inspector demanding "convincing evidence" for any claim it did not possess prohibited materials. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Baghdad the only way to avoid war was to cooperate fully with the inspection team.

The first group of inspectors was due on Wednesday to begin the first search in four years for nuclear, biological or chemical weapons in Iraq, which President Bush has threatened with war if it does not disarm.

Under a tough November 8 Security Council resolution, Iraq must disarm or face "serious consequences."

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who has just returned from a trip to Baghdad, said Iraqi officials told him they had no banned weapons. But they raised many questions about an important Iraqi declaration due on December 8, he said.

"If the Iraqi side were to state, as it still did at our meeting, that there were no such (weapons) programs it would need to provide convincing documentary or other evidence," Blix said in New York on Monday.

"The production of mustard gas is not exactly the same as the production of marmalade," he told reporters.

TEAM IS READY

The first team of 17 inspectors who arrived in Baghdad on Monday left their overnight hotel in Baghdad early on Tuesday for the former Canal Hotel, which houses several U.N. missions including the inspection team's operational headquarters.

They were expected to meet later on Tuesday with Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, the office dealing with the inspections teams.

A spokesman for the inspectors has said their work would likely focus first on sites visited previously by former arms teams, to check if equipment left there was still working.

Twenty tons of equipment already have been flown to Baghdad from Larnaca, Cyprus, including communications gear, computers, furniture and medicines.

Iraq's state-run media reiterated on Tuesday the country's stance that there are no weapons of mass destruction left in Iraq for the inspectors to find.

"The truth is that the weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed," said Al-Thawra, organ of the ruling Baath Party.

"And all the means to produce them were destroyed, confiscated or made redundant, including some buildings, furniture and cooling devices, and other things."

Iraq has not produced such weapons during the absence of inspectors, al-Thawra said, partly because "it is under embargo, and is being watched by several means, including six American satellites and satellites of other nations, and because it does not intend to produce this kind of weapons."

Annan urged Iraq on Monday to cooperate with the inspectors.

"I hope the government of Iraq will fully cooperate with the inspectors and respect its obligations unreservedly. That is the only way to avoid conflict in the region," Annan said in Paris.

Security Council Resolution 1441 gives inspectors unfettered access to any suspected location, including presidential palaces. Blix said that earlier declarations by Baghdad "did not give a full account" of weapons programs.

OIL-FOR-FOOD

The Security Council, under pressure from the United States, moved on Monday night to delay for nine days the Iraq oil-for-food program, which is usually renewed for six-month periods.

The plan allows Iraq to sell oil and covers food, medicine and a host of civilian supplies to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The United States wants only a three-month renewal and has linked the plan to expanding a U.N. list of items that have dual military and civilian uses.

Seesawing oil prices ticked up on Tuesday as traders waited to see whether Baghdad would cut off its crude exports after the United Nations move. U.S. light crude climbed 13 cents to 26.24 dlrs a barrel following Monday's 65-cent fall in New York.

Oil markets were already on tenterhooks over U.S. threats of military action against Iraq, fearing war might cause disruption to crude flows from other key producers in the Middle East, which pumps a little over one-quarter of world supplies.

PHOTO CAPTION

Members of the 17-strong U.N. inspection team leave their hotel in Baghdad November 26, 2002 for the United Nations arms team operations center at the start of their work. (Suhaib Salem/Reuter