• Former Irish PM says Aziz 'flexible'
• Iraq says sanctions claiming lives

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A top Iraqi official said Sunday that the government would not back down on its decision to ban U.N. arms inspections.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told the official Iraqi News Agency that the government was not moved by a U.N. Security Council resolution last week holding it in "flagrant violation" of U.N. edicts.

"Iraq adheres to its stance until the Security Council fulfills its obligation toward Iraq," INA quoted Aziz as saying. This obligation, he said, involved lifting the ban on oil sales "as a start toward the final lifting of the whole embargo."

Iraq's trade minister, Mohammed Mahdi Saleh, also told reporters that Iraq is unconcerned by a possible U.S. military strike. "Our country is prepared to face any military aggression," he said.

Iraq last month announced it was halting cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors until the Security Council begins to lift the embargo, which Iraqi officials say has devastated the country's economy.

The Security Council has said the embargo will not be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction, as required by U.N. resolutions that ended the 1991 Gulf War over the Kuwait occupation.

Former Irish PM says Aziz 'flexible'

Aziz's comments came after he met a delegation of Irish and Scottish politicians led by Ireland's former prime minister, Albert Reynolds, who said they opposed the use of force against Iraq.

Aziz

Afterward, Reynolds said he found Aziz flexible and open, a sign that Baghdad may be looking for a way out in spite of its tough talk in public.

"I think nothing is solved by military action," said Tam Dalyell, a Scottish member of the British Parliament who accompanied Reynolds. "It just creates a bitterness between old friends that I deplore."

Dalyell said Reynolds planned to brief U.S. President Bill Clinton about his findings in Baghdad, adding, "I hope it does some good."

The United States and Britain have threatened possible military action to force Baghdad to allow U.N. weapons inspections to resume.

U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait prevent the export of oil, Iraq's economic mainstay, as well as trade.

Earlier Sunday, Trade Minister Saleh said a possible U.S. military strike would be no harder on the country than the sanctions.

Iraq says sanctions claiming lives

The government has blamed the sanctions for shortages of food and medicine as well as the deterioration of its water, sewer and electricity systems. These problems, it says, have taken the lives of 1.5 million Iraqis during the past eight years, many of them children.

Saleh

"We are losing 4,500 children per month -- that means nearly 60,000 per year," Saleh said. "I don't think a military strike would kill 60,000 children as sanctions are killing now."

Iraq also has demanded changes in the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), which is charged with eliminating Iraq's biological and chemical weapons as well as long-range missiles.

Iraq wants UNSCOM to include fewer U.S. and British experts on its team and replace its chairman, Australian Richard Butler.

Iraq has long accused Butler of working on behalf of the United States to prolong the sanctions as a way to undermine President Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi ban exempts monitors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. On Sunday, two nuclear monitoring teams went into the field, U.N. officials said.

UNSCOM said it would send home about two dozen inspectors who have been idled by the standoff, but was keeping 100 members of the team on standby in Baghdad.

"We maintain the capacity to go out at very short notice to resume our activities so we could start our work again should it be necessary," said Caroline Cross, UNSCOM spokeswoman.

Correspondent Jane Arraf andThe Associated Press contributed to this report.