Iraq does not want war with America and is ready to cooperate with U.N. arms inspectors searching the country for banned weapons, Iraq's deputy prime minister said in an interview published Wednesday. "We are ready to explain everything to inspectors," Tariq Aziz told Le Figaro newspaper. The interview hit newsstands just hours before Secretary of State Colin Powell  headed into a U.N. Security Council session in New York, where he was to make the case that Iraq continues to defy U.N. orders to disarm.

"The American secretary of state will not be able to show that Iraq has arms of mass destruction," Aziz said.

He denied that Iraq had any remaining stocks of the biological toxin anthrax and deadly chemical agent VX, saying all stocks were destroyed.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says that Iraq has not produced sufficient evidence about production of the deadly agents, both of which Iraq was known to have possessed before the last round of U.N. inspections that stopped in December 1998.

When asked if Iraq would permit overflights by U-2 spy planes to support the U.N. mission and allow scientists to be interviewed without Iraqi "minders," Aziz said, "On these ... points we will cooperate with Mr. Blix."

But, he added, "I would simply like to point out, regarding the U-2 planes, that it is fundamentally unjust to ask us to accept overflights of our territory by these spy planes at a moment when the Americans are openly planning to invade out country."

Iraq, he said, hopes that war can still be avoided.

"We hope with all our heart to avoid war because we know it will be terrible for us," Aziz said. "That is why we are providing so much effort to help the inspectors."

Aziz also dismissed suggestions that Saddam Hussein  go into exile to avoid war as "ridiculous."

"We were born in Iraq, and we will die in Iraq," said Aziz.

He also said he was traveling to the Vatican  on Feb. 14 to meet with Pope John Paul II. However, the Vatican said Wednesday that no meeting has been scheduled to date.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz speaks to a Lebanese delegation visiting Baghdad, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003. Aziz said the Chief United Nations  Weapons Inspector Hans Blix will return to Baghdad for talks on Feb. 8. (AP Photo/Hussein Mall