Nuclear team heads for Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A team of nuclear experts is due to arrive in Baghdad for an annual inspection of Iraq's uranium stockpiles.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's team is unrelated to U.N. weapons inspections blocked by the Iraqi government since the end of 1998.

But it is essential in verifying that Iraq is not diverting uranium stocks left in the country for use in weapons.

The seven-member team will examine low-enriched uranium sealed by the IAEA after it dismantled Iraq's nuclear programme following the Gulf War.

High-enriched uranium, which could more easily be used in weapons, was removed from Iraq by the agency.

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The team will also examine stockpiles of depleted and natural uranium.

For the first time the team includes safety experts who will ensure that the uranium is being properly stored and the containers are not leaking radiation.

The IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, conducted more intrusive inspections after the Gulf War under the same mandate as U.N. weapons inspectors.

Those inspections stopped when all the weapons inspectors pulled out of Iraq in December 1998 just hours before a major U.S. bombing.

Iraq is demanding that U.N. sanctions against it be lifted before the inspectors return.

The IAEA had declared Iraq's nuclear program essentially dead. But since the standoff over allowing nuclear and other inspections to resume, the agency says it cannot certify that Iraq is not trying to revive that programme.