Vienna: Iraqi officials opened talks with UN arms experts in Vienna on September 30 to discuss resuming inspections as the United States kept up its threats to enforce disarmament if necessary.

Hans Blix, chairman of United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), said the purpose of the negotiations "is that if and when inspections come about we will not have clashes inside".

He also said the UN team would have unlimited access to sites.

Asked if there would be limits on where the inspectors could go, Blix said, "No, I am not aware of any such places."

However, he refused to be specific about whether the inspectors would have access to all sites without delay, an issue before the inspections broke off nearly four years ago.

The United States is pressing the UN Security Council to issue a tough new resolution on Iraqi disarmament.

Resolution 1284 said that if Iraq allowed UNMOVIC and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resume work and cooperated fully with them, the crippling sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1991 could be suspended.

But the US administration has said Saddam cannot be trusted.

It wants to shore up 1284 -- adopted when predecessor Bill Clinton was in office -- with a new text spelling out what Secretary of State Colin Powell has called "the hard consequences" if Iraq fails to comply.