The United States hit determined opposition from Russia and France over its stance on Iraq on Monday, threatening its bid for tough new U.N.-imposed arms inspection rules as experts met in Vienna to discuss them.Russia and France, both with veto powers in the United Nations Security Council which is to consider a U.S.-drafted resolution on Iraq, separately rebuked Washington. Russia rapped Washington for sending its warplanes to strike a southern Iraq target on Sunday, while France slammed the threat of military force contained in the U.S. draft proposal at the United Nations.

China, which like the United States and Britain also holds a veto given to the five permanent members in the 15-nation Security Council, also remained skeptical of the U.S. proposal.

An envoy from Britain, Washington's closest ally in its campaign against Baghdad, handed the draft to officials in Beijing, and China -- which has already expressed its misgivings -- was reflecting on it, a British embassy official said.

Amid the diplomatic war of words, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix began talks with Iraqi officials in Vienna on Monday, saying he expected unlimited access to sites on any return by his team to Iraq after a nearly four-year gap.

Speaking to reporters before the talks to work out details of the U.N.'s return to search for any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq, Blix was asked if there would be any limitations on the sites open to inspectors.

"No, not that I'm aware of," he said.

After a two-and-a-half hour session, aimed at working out details of the U.N.'s return, the U.N. and Iraqi delegations broke for lunch and will resume their meeting at 1300 GMT.

"The atmosphere is businesslike... We are moving along nicely," said Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the U.N.'s Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is hosting the talks.

U.N. inspection teams left Iraq in December 1998 on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing raid intended to punish Baghdad for allegedly not cooperating with the inspectors.

Monday's talks were the first test of Iraq's cooperation since Baghdad agreed on September 16 to the unconditional return of the inspectors under threat of a U.S. military strike.

"We would like to ensure that if and when inspections come about, we will not have any clashes inside (Iraq). We would rather have these things outside, in advance," Blix said.

The administration of President Bush , whose policy of "regime change" in Baghdad means toppling President Saddam Hussein , has proposed that Iraq be given one week to accept demands to disarm and 30 days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programs.


MILITARY ACTION

The Security Council draft threatens military action if Iraq fails to comply and France reaffirmed its opposition on Monday, warning such an approach could threaten international stability.

"We do not want to give carte blanche to military action... That is why we cannot accept a resolution authorizing as of now the recourse to force without (the issue) coming back to the U.N. Security Council," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told Le Monde newspaper.

France has proposed two resolutions, with the second one paving the way for action if Baghdad hindered the inspectors allowed in under a first resolution.

Russia criticized the United States and Britain on Monday for launching air attacks on Iraq at the weekend.

"The surge of activity by allied aviation which has come at a time when representatives...prepared to go to Vienna to discuss procedures for renewing U.N. inspections in Iraq causes regret," the foreign ministry said.

"Anglo-American bombing raids in 'no-fly zones' not only deepen the complicated atmosphere around Iraq but create obstacles in the search for a political-diplomatic settlement of the Iraq question."

In a flurry of diplomacy in Turkey -- a key player in any U.S.-led war against Baghdad -- the United States and Iraq both sought to secure the support of the key Muslim NATO member, which publicly opposes any such strike on its neighbor.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones held talks in Ankara with Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel, while Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz was also due later in the day.

Jones said after the talks that the U.S. was working hard with Turkey and other countries to agree a Security Council resolution on Iraq.

"There's a big discussion under way in the Security Council right now on how to make sure that not only the inspectors go back in but that disarmament actually occurs in Iraq.

"That's the goal, that's been the goal since the end of the Gulf War and that continues to be the goal," she said.

Gurel told reporters after his meeting with Jones. "We conveyed our concerns one by one, and they took note."

WEAPONS INSPECTION TALKS

At the Vienna talks, Blix said he did not expect Saddam's palaces to be closed to inspectors.

"There is an agreement about that subject at the present time. It is in force at the present time," Blix told Reuters.

Upon arrival at the U.N. compound in Vienna, members of the Iraqi delegation, led by Saddam's technical adviser General Amir al-Saadi, declined to comment.

Blix said he would report to the Security Council on Thursday. Before that, he said he would be unable to discuss the closed-door meetings.

In Rome, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson told a convention on Mediterranean security that Iraq was not a problem for the defense alliance. "This is very firmly in the hands of the United Nations at the moment," he said.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix (L) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed El Baradei (2nd,L) talk to Iraqi delegates Saied Al-Moussavi, Amir Al Sadi (Special Adviser to the Iraqi President) and Hussam Mohamed Amin at the beginning of talks to discuss resuming inspections, in the U.N.'s Vienna headquarters, September 30, 2002. Blix told journalists earlier that he expected his team to have unlimited access during inspections when they return to Iraq after a nearly four year hiatus. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuter