Annan forwarded copies of the letter containing the offer -- by Foreign Minister Naji Sabri -- to the members of the Security Council for study. But his spokesman quickly pointed out that the proposal was "at variance" with the terms of a key disarmament resolution adopted by the Security Council in 1999.

The Secretary General planned to lunch with Council members Monday and the Iraqi invitation was certain to be their main topic of discussion. The US currently holds the Council presidency and chief delegate John D. Negroponte may be expected to oppose any tendency to regard Sabri's gesture as an olive branch after years of obduracy.

Hussein threw UN weapons inspectors out in 1998, since when he has been at liberty to rebuild Iraq's arsenal without the inconvenience of international scrutiny. Iraq denies that this has been happening, but many experts, especially those within the US administration, are skeptical. The fear has long been voiced that Baghdad has the potential to become a nuclear power.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said the Secretary General passed Sabri's letter to the Security Council members "because they are the ones that prescribed the formula for the resumption of inspections." The invitation proposed a trip to Baghdad by Hans Blix, head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and a team of disarmament experts. This commission is the successor body to one led by Richard Butler, a tough minded Australian diplomat (since retired) who was one of those who testified at the recent Congressional hearings on Iraq. These sessions were prompted by persistent reports that President Bush is itching to remove Saddam by force of arms.

No Council member, with the possible exception of the United Kingdom, supports reviving the Gulf war. Russia and France have been willing to allow Saddam considerable leeway in his dealings with the UN, for their own reasons. Moscow has outstanding arms bills it wants Iraq to pay and France looks forward to lucrative oil deals when the current unpleasantness is a thing of the past.

Annan has had two inconclusive rounds of talks with the Iraqis, in New York and Vienna, this year on the subject of resumed arms inspections. Blix, a Swedish diplomat who used to head the International Atomic Energy Agency, was present both times. Considered less aggressive than Butler, he is still bound by Security Council rules aimed at ensuring, if necessary through an intrusive inspections regime, that the world body's resolutions have been observed to the letter before sanctions may be lifted.

Saddam and his cohorts have made capital out of the alleged sufferings of Iraqi civilians because of the UN-imposed economic embargo. A plan to speed the delivery of humanitarian aid to Iraq went into effect July 15, by which Blix's commission and the International Atomic Energy can sign off on contracts for supplies to Iraq -- certifying that no items proposed for delivery had the potential for military use.

Under this system, more than $7 million worth of contracts was approved July 30.