Iraq Offers to Let ‘Neutral’ Arms Experts Into Building : Weapons: Baghdad has refused to allow inspection of ministry offices.

NICOSIA, Cyprus â€”  Iraq on Sunday offered to let arms experts from “neutralâ€� countries visit a building where U.N. weapons inspectors have been denied entry for two weeks. Iraq claims Americans on the U.N. inspection teams are spies.

The official Iraqi news agency, monitored in Nicosia, said the Iraqi position was conveyed to U.N. envoy Rolf Ekeus, chief of the U.N. commission overseeing elimination of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

Ekeus flew to Baghdad on Friday to press President Saddam Hussein’s government to allow U.N. experts to search the Agriculture Ministry for documents on Iraq’s weapons program.

After meetings Sunday with Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz and Foreign Minister Ahmed Hussein Khudayer, he returned to Bahrain, the regional headquarters of his commission. On his arrival there, Ekeus would not comment on the proposal.

But he said “yes� when asked by reporters if there was still room for a diplomatic settlement. “It’s up to Iraq.�

The stalemate is the latest dispute between Hussein’s government and the U.N. Security Council over implementation of the Persian Gulf War cease-fire accord, which requires that Iraq give up all of its weapons of mass destruction.

Iraqi officials said Friday that they would not back down on barring a search of the ministry.

Previous attempts by Hussein’s government to obstruct or harass U.N. inspectors brought warnings from the Security Council about the possible use of force, and the Iraqis backed down.

The current confrontation has lasted much longer than the others, however. It began on July 5, and almost daily demonstrations have been staged to denounce the United States.

Aziz told Ekeus that Iraq is prepared to let “experts in the field of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons from nonaligned countries or neutral countries who are members of the U.N. Security Council visit and inspect the Ministry of Agriculture,� the Iraqi News Agency said.

The report did not identify any countries that would be acceptable to Iraq or say how Ekeus responded to the proposal.

On July 5, Iraqi officials refused to let a U.N. team led by U.S. Army Maj. Karen Jansen enter the ministry. Members of the team, who include Russians, Frenchmen and Britons, have since maintained an around-the-clock vigil outside the building to guard against the removal of sensitive documents.