United Nations: In an apparent effort to show that it is implementing the Security Council resolutions, Iraq has expressed its intention to co-operate with the United Nations' envoy, who is trying to resolve Kuwait-related issues left over from the 1991 Gulf war.

In a letter to the United Nations, Baghdad said it has lifted its ban on visits by the envoy, Yuli Vorontsov, and invited him to Iraq for the first time.

Secretary General Kofi Annan had appointed Vorontsov in February 2000 to persuade Iraq to return the Kuwaiti property it seized during the attack and take up the cases of Kuwaitis reported missing since then. But Iraq declined to receive him, accusing him of being hostile to it.

Annan refuted the charge but Vorontosv could not initiate any action.

In a reversal of that past hostility, Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri sent the letter on December 11 inviting Vorontsov to visit Baghdad as the guest of Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. However, no date has been set for the visit, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on December 12.

Kuwait had accused Baghdad of refusing to give information of about 605 Kuwaitis, with Iraq saying it wanted Kuwait to account for more than 1,100 Iraqis.

Each denied that it was holding the other's nationals in detention.

The invitation to Vorontsov came four days after President Saddam Hussein offered an unprecedented apology for attacking Kuwait but blamed anti-Iraqi policies by Americans and the Kuwaiti government for provoking it.

PTI