71.   On Friday morning, U.N. arms inspection teams were turned away from sites in Iraq when Americans on the teams were not allowed inside.

72.   President Bill Clinton is pursuing a middle-ground option to solve the standoff with Iraq over U.N. arms inspections.

73.   Richardson acknowledged that Iraq had made progress in dismantling its nuclear weapons program but said it was too early to lift economic sanctions or scale back arms inspections.

74.   Russia is urging U.N. chief Kofi Annan to name a Russian to a top post in the commission which performs arms inspections in Iraq, diplomatic sources said.

75.   Speaking as German envoy, Eitel said Germany wanted to keep the oil-for-food issue separate from the recent Iraq-U.N. standoffs over arms inspection.

76.   Speaking to reporters Sunday, Monteiro did not say whether he considered the construction to be of any significance to arms inspections.

77.   Such a step could defuse the crisis over arms inspections that has led to threatened American attacks on Iraq and a buildup of U.S. military forces in the Gulf.

78.   The commission then stopped new arms inspections.

79.   The crisis over the arms inspections in Iraq now moves to a deeply divided U.N. Security Council, which appears short on fresh ideas.

80.   The Iraqi decision could defuse the crisis over arms inspections that led to threatened American attacks on Iraq and a buildup of U.S. military forces in the Gulf.