UN's Annan hopes for a fast Iraqi solution

The United Nations hopes for a "quick solution" to the weapons inspection problem posed by Iraq, but will leave any action to the UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday.

"We would like to see the job done as quickly as possible, especially if Iraq would like to see light at the end of the tunnel," Annan told reporters in a press conference in Malaysia.

"I hope we be able to work out the difficulties and differences we have had in the past with Iraq and move on" Annan said response to Iraq's latest refusal to allow weapons inspections at its top-security "presidential sites," Al-Akhbar daily said

UN special commission chief Richard Butler, who oversees the inspections program, said that Iraq had told him it would never allow inspectors to enter presidential sites.