France warns against a separate action against Iraq, Baghdad delegates an envoy to the Arab states

Iraqi official sources announced that a special envoy for the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein left Baghdad yesterday to hold talks with several Arab leaders including Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

The sources said that member of the Iraqi revolution leadership council Ali Hassan al-Mijuid started an Arab tour including Damascus. But the sources gave no mention to the other Arab states which he will visit.

Before leaving Baghdad, Hassan al-Majuid accused the UN inspectors of being spies. He told journalists that certain inspectors are professional and the others are spies.

The Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz last week conveyed messages from Saddam to the leaders of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco about the confrontations with the USA.

Meantime, the French President Jacque Chirac has warned against a separate act against Iraq. He stressed that this will be in contradiction with international law and that France will not support it. This was expressed in a joint press conference he held with the chairman of UNMOVIC Hans Blix and the director of the International agency for atomic energy Muhammad al-Barade' in Paris. Chirac called for giving the inspectors enough time to complete their mission in Iraq and to conclude important results, convincing for the international community. He said that France sees that the war is the worst solutions.

Blix and al-Barade' are visiting Paris to brief the French President Jacque Chirac on the work of the UN inspectors in Iraq just 10 days before their report on the Iraqi weapons to the UN Security Council. Later in the day, Blix headed for London to meet with prime minister Tony Blair before he will head for Baghdad on Sunday.