Party Offices to Stay Off Limits, Iraq Says

BAGHDAD — An official of Iraq’s ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party declared Thursday that U.N. arms inspectors will continue to be barred from a party office here that they tried to inspect Wednesday.

The U.N. inspectors, who are carrying out intensive searches in Baghdad and elsewhere, insist that they have the right under U.N. resolutions to examine any site without conditions.

A team of 12 inspectors was turned back Wednesday from the regional office of the party. The team was asked for a written declaration of what it sought, said the Iraqi News Agency. The inspectors refused and left, it said.

In Washington, Clinton administration officials said Thursday that Iraq’s latest rejection of U.N. weapons inspectors “doesn’t bode well.” The U.S. has threatened to attack Iraq to force compliance.