IAEA Director General said he was "cautiously optimistic" over Iraq's commitment to comply fully with Security Council resolution 1441. He and Hans Blix, head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) held two days of talks with senior Iraqi officials 8-9 February on key outstanding issues. The two leaders are set to brief the Security Council 14 February on the outcome of the Baghdad talks and the status of ongoing inspections.

Speaking in Baghdad 9 February, Dr. ElBaradei said the talks had three main objectives - "full inspection, full Iraqi cooperation, movement on the remaining disarmament issues" - and that "good progress" was made on all these issues.

At the press briefing and during subsequent interviews, the Director General made the following points:

• "I think we have seen a beginning of a change today. What we heard is...that they (Iraq) will do everything they are bound to do on the Security Council resolution. They are fully committed, you know, for the disarmament process that they would go out of their way to accommodate us in every way possible. So we got a commitment to do private interviews both inside and outside Iraq. The government to encourage the scientists to do the interviews, which is a very valuable tool for us. We hope before Friday (14 February) that we've got a commitment that we'll be able to use all the surveillance aircraft....but the Iraqis still have some problem because it is associated with the no-fly zone."
• "We made it clear to them that what we are interested is to report 100 percent Iraqi cooperation to the Security Council. Anything less will not get them off the hook at this stage. Time is critical."
• Asked about Iraq's steps toward fuller cooperation, he said that "you get the feeling that they're trying their very best now to come with evidence." He noted, however, that "we never trust any inspected country, let alone Iraq, where we had...a pattern of non-cooperation." He said he was "cautiously optimistic" about Iraq's commitment.
• Dr. ElBaradei emphasized that different sets of issues face IAEA and UN inspectors with respect to the nuclear, chemical, biological and missile files, which he said have "different timelines". He underlined, however, that both he and Dr. Blix "made it clear to Iraq that they need to move on the four files... that Iraq cooperation in all areas has to be simultaneous."

Read an unofficial transcript of the Baghdad press briefing and Dr. ElBaradei's interview.