Baghdad's U.N. envoy said on Monday that Iraq had unconditionally accepted U-2 surveillance flights and would soon issue a law banning arms of mass destruction -- key demands of U.N. weapons inspectors. The concessions were made by Iraq the face of a massive military build-up in the region by the United States and amid U.S. splits with allies France and Germany as well as Russia and China which are trying to delay any move to war.

Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri told reporters he had delivered a letter to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix stating its acceptance of the flights over all parts of the country.

An Iraqi source, who described the note as "specific and short," said the letter contained no conditions on flights by the U-2 planes, which would be on loan to the United Nations from the United States.

Baghdad had previously resisted the U-2 flights, saying it could not guarantee their safety in the self-declared U.S.-British no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq.

In Baghdad, President Saddam Hussein said the United States and Britain should refrain from launching raids during the over flights -- a demand previously dismissed by Blix as out of his control.

"If the world, besides America, finds that the U-2 plane is important to carry out more aerial surveillance, it should tell America and Britain not to open fire at us. Otherwise, this demand would be a call for the surrender of Iraq to the American military force ...," Saddam said in comments read on state television.

NO-FLY ZONES

U.S. and British planes patrolling "no-fly" zones in north and south Iraq frequently attack air defense and other sites, saying they are being targeted by Iraqi forces. There have been two such attacks in the south in the last three days.

The White House said the decision to allow U-2 flights did not alter the "bottom line" that Iraq must disarm and reflected skepticism over the offer. "What we've seen in the past is what is unconditional today is conditional tomorrow," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Iraq was also drafting legislation to outlaw weapons of mass destruction, Aldouri said. Iraq denies that it has any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

The U-2 flights and the legislation were among the top demands made of Baghdad last week by top U.N. inspectors Blix, who leads the United Nations' biological, chemical and ballistic missile inspectors in Iraq, and Mohamed ElBaradei, his colleague in charge of nuclear arms inspectors.

Both men, who were in Baghdad for talks last weekend, had also pressed for inspectors to be able to interview Iraqi scientists in private, without government minders.

Iraq announced last week it was encouraging the private interviews and indicated it would respond to the other two requests but had not done so during the Baghdad visit.

Aldouri told Reuters Iraq had "already accepted the surveillance of the U-2s over Iraq. This is a decision made in Baghdad." Asked if the decision to allow the flights was unconditional, he said, "Yes."

IRAQI LAW AGAINST WEAPONS

The Iraqi letter said overflights by French or Russian surveillance planes would also be acceptable.

Asked about anti-weapons legislation, which has been demanded of Baghdad in U.N. resolutions since 1991, Aldouri said, "It will be issued very soon. The legislation would ban all Iraqi citizens, public or private from having any kind of mass destruction weapons."

Aldouri said Blix and ElBaradei had been given 24 documents from Iraqi officials during their weekend visits "explaining a lot of the points remaining outstanding."

"We are trying always to explain our position -- that we are cooperating, that we are not in a material breach, that we are doing (our) utmost to cooperate" with inspectors, he said.

"We are looking to the international community to act. We are working hard to avoid war," he said.

The Baghdad trip was a prelude to a key report Blix and ElBaradei will deliver to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council on Friday as the council weighs what steps to take next.

Blix appeared somewhat pessimistic, however, about the results, telling Reuters he was still awaiting new evidence to fill in gaps in Iraq's past illicit arms programs.

"This time they presented some papers to us in which they focused upon new issues. Not new evidence really as far as I can see, but they have nevertheless focused on real, open issues and that is welcome," he said in Athens on Monday

PHOTO CAPTION

The international fault lines over Iraq deepened February 10, 2003 as NATO allies sparred angrily over military preparations, and France, Russia and Germany jointly set out their alternative to U.S. war plans. Iraq, meanwhile, agreed to U.N. inspectors' demands that it allow over flights by spy planes in the hunt for banned weapons. A U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane is seen in this undated file photo. (USAF/Re