FRANCE HAS DONE AN ABOUT-FACE ON IRAQ SANCTIONS:

But the French ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the sanctions issue was now linked by past Security Council resolutions to a certification of Iraqi disarmament.

“So meanwhile, we could suspend the sanctions and adjust the oil-for-food [programme] with an idea of its phasing out,” he told reporters following a briefing by UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.

Under the oil-for-food programme the UN has managed the use of funds generated by limited Iraqi oil sales to pay for humanitarian goods.

The French ambassador did not link a suspension of the sanctions to a return of the UN inspectors to Iraq.

Interesting.

UPDATE: Porphyrogenitus suspects that the about-face may have been occasioned by threats to release information from Iraqi archives. Heh. I kind of hope so.