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Ekeus rejecting countries not honoring UN commitments: Albright

UNITED NATIONS: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took aim on Monday at China, France and Russia, saying their opposition to the nomination of Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus to be the new chief UN arms inspector for Iraq breached commitments made.

Albright did not name the three countries but was clearly referring to them when she described her displeasure at the fact that the Ekeus nomination had not been approved last week by the UN Security Council.

"I was deeply disappointed by some of the discussions last week in which the Security Council did not honour the agreement made that the secretary general would be able to (name) a chairman," Albright told reporters here.

China, France and Russia have all come out against Ekeus, who was nominated by UN chief Kofi Annan last Monday after a fruitless month-long search by the 15-member Security Council to find a consensus choice.

Albright said the United States would continue to back Ekeus, who headed a previous incarnation of the Iraqi from 1991 to 1997, adding that she hoped a resolution to the stalemate could be reached soon.

But she signalled that she had little patience with the opposition especially because the countries against Ekeus, although they abstained in the December vote on the resolution that reconstituted the commission, had said they supported its goals.

"When those countries that abstained on the resolution gave their explanation of vote they made it clear they believed the resolution needed to be abided by," Albright said.

She said she remembered that during the tenure of Ekeus' controversial successor, Richard Butler, some countries had made a clear they had referred Ekeus in the job.

"I must say it is mighty ironic when, at a time when Ambassador Ekeus has been put forward when they had the opportunity to support him, they did not," Albright said.

In addition, she said she was further troubled by the opposition as the three countries had all called for Annan to have a greater say in forming the new inspection commission.

"It is doubly ironic that so much effort was put into having the secretary general play a very important role in the whole Iraq process and in the selection of the chairman that arrangements have thus far not been honoured," Albright said.

The secretary, at the United Nations to preside over the opening a special Security Council debate on the Democratic Republic of Congo, made her remarks during a break in that session.

Her comments were unprompted by questions and a senior US official said Albright had raised the same issue during a wide-ranging meeting with Annan earlier in the day. AFP