Moscow: The UN's chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said on October 22 that a war with Iraq could be avoided if Iraqi officials were able to convince arms monitors that they had no weapons of mass destruction, Russian media reported.

A settlement to the Iraqi stand-off depends on Baghdad's willingness to cooperate with the United Nations, Blix told the Interfax news agency on his arrival in Moscow where he is due to meet Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The inspectors may return to Iraq within weeks, but only once a UN Security Council resolution has been passed setting out their mandate and powers, Blix said.

Blix's arrival in Moscow on a private visit comes as diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iraqi situation intensify, with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council meeting to discuss a new revised text on Iraq.

Washington said on October 21 that agreement on new language acceptable to France and Russia, which strongly opposed an earlier draft authorising an automatic military response if Iraq failed to disarm, was in the offing.

However, other Security Council members indicated nothing should be taken for granted.

In Moscow an unnamed "informed source" quoted by local agencies described the new text as "disappointing" and "unacceptable", with little to distinguish it from the earlier US draft.

The new text "is not very different from previous US-British proposals, which were unacceptable to Russia and other permanent members of the UN Security Council. Such a development gives rise to serious disappointment," the source said.

Russia has not as yet given any official reaction to the US proposed resolution, but on October 21 Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said Moscow hoped that a new US resolution on Iraq "will not contain any unacceptable elements from the old American proposals".