Annan told reporters that he had asked UN weapons inspectors and humanitarian workers to leave Iraq. "I have just informed the council that we will withdraw the UNMOVIC and atomic agency inspectors. We will withdraw the UN humanitarian workers," he said.

There are a total of 156 UN weapons inspectors in Iraq from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United Nations also has 194 humanitarian workers in the country.

Meanwhile, Annan regarded the mandates of the six-year-old oil-for-food program and the UN peacekeeping force monitoring the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire along the Iraq-Kuwait border as "suspended."

But the secretary-general made it clear that the United Nations will not abandon Iraq despite the withdrawal of the UN staff.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2003)