UN inspectors search palace

Baghdad, Iraq -- U.N. arms experts spent four hours searching a main presidential palace in the heart of the Iraqi capital Wednesday, making their second visit to a residence of President Saddam Hussein since inspections resumed last year.\nThe inspectors, who are seeking weapons of mass destruction, visited a complex in the al-Karadah district known popularly as the Old Palace.\nSaddam has dozens of palaces across the country many of which are not used for public purposes or are idle much of the time. In the past, Iraqi officials resisted palace searches, calling them an offense to the country's sovereignty. But the current inspection regime, which began in November, allows snap inspections of palaces. A Dec. 3 search of the Al-Sajoud palace in Baghdad drew complaints from Iraqi officials that the search was provocative, but there was no resistance.\nParliamentary speaker Saadoun Hamadi and several army officers arrived at the palace while the inspectors were inside, but were turned away by guards. The inspectors place a "freeze" on sites while they are there, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.\nIn a front-page editorial Wednesday, the newspaper Babil said the government must explain to Iraqis why it is cooperating with and tolerating the inspectors, who have been accused of everything from gathering intelligence to behaving rudely. Visits to Saddam's palaces, in particular, are seen by some as undermining Iraq's position for bowing to the world.\n"Iraqis are angry and agitated and some of them can no longer tolerate the sight of inspectors' teams after some of their members exceeded ... their mandate," said Babil, which is owned by Saddam's eldest son Odai.\nSecurity Council Resolution 1441, which created the new, tougher inspections regime, warns Iraq of "serious consequences" if it fails to cooperate fully. The council is due Jan. 27 to hear reports from chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei.\nPresident Bush indicated the inspectors did not have that much time.\n"He must disarm," Bush said. "I'm sick and tired of games and deceptions. And that's my view of timetables."\nHis spokesman, Ari Fleischer, suggested Wednesday that Saddam may some day face war crimes charges. "The thinking is if Saddam Hussein were to leave Iraq and go on trial, the world would be a better place," Fleischer said.\nAsked if war crimes charges were part of official U.S. policy, he replied, "Let him start by leaving."\nSince inspections resumed in November, they are not known to have discovered any evidence to support U.S. allegations that Saddam has hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction. But the Iraqi declaration on armaments, filed to the Security Council last month, failed to account for all the weapons material produced in the past, according to Blix.\nBlix -- who heads to Baghdad on Sunday with ElBaradei, the chief of the U.N. nuclear agency -- said Tuesday: "There are a great many open questions as to their possession of weapons of mass destruction" and "we need to have more evidence supplied to us."\nThe United States, which is deploying about 100,000 troops to the Persian Gulf in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq, said Tuesday it was calling up Iraqi exiles who wish to help.\nThe first batch of Iraqi dissidents who have volunteered to serve with U.S. forces have been told by the Pentagon to assemble at marshaling centers in the next several days, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.\nAs many as 3,000 Iraqis are expected to be trained to act as translators, guides, military police and liaisons between U.S. forces and the Iraqi population. Washington has ruled out early suggestions that the dissidents would be used in combat.\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday he saw no reason for an invasion of Iraq as U.N. weapons inspectors were "just getting up to full speed"