WASHINGTON, September 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pressure mounted on Iraq Sunday, September 15, 2002, to let UN weapons inspectors return ahead of an intense week of UN diplomacy to form a resolution tough enough to meet U.S. demands.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, meanwhile, insisted that any new inspections be tied to the lifting of 12-year-old UN sanctions.

"We accept the resolutions. We did not expel the inspectors, they were withdrawn. Their return can only be part of applying UN resolutions," Sabri told German television.

"Iraq's sovereignty must be respected, and the inspections must result in the easing of sanctions against Iraq and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, particularly in Israel," he said.

The Baghdad media, meanwhile, lashed out at U.S. President George W. Bush branding him a "liar, son of a liar." Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan warned the United States that their interests in the Middle East would be at risk in any war.

With U.S. officials again demanding quick and determined action by the UN Security Council, Arab Foreign Ministers urged Iraq to accept the return of weapons inspectors to avoid a military strike, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We want Iraq to implement the Security Council resolutions which will end the current crisis" over Iraq's failure to admit inspectors, said Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud, speaking on behalf of Arab Foreign Ministers who met Saturday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York.

Saudi Arabia, an outspoken opponent of military action against Iraq, indicated it would now bow to any UN endorsement of a strike on Iraq.

"If the United Nations takes a decision, by the Security Council, to implement a policy of the UN, every country that has signed the charter of the UN has to fulfill it," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told CNN.

Saudi Arabia, a launch pad in the 1991 Gulf war, insisted it would not allow its territory to be used for any unilateral U.S. attack.

In an interview, with the Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Prince Saud urged Iraq to agree to weapons inspections to spare its people from war.

"Since Iraq says it does not possess weapons of mass destruction and has no plans to produce any, why doesn't it agree to the return of inspectors to settle the issue which will go to Security Council," the prince said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell emphasized Sunday that the United States wants the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that gives Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein "weeks" to comply with past resolutions on the destruction of its weapons.

Powell told U.S. television that "the international community is unified on this issue" and that the United States was confident that the United Nations would judge that Saddam was in breach of his commitments.

"And I hope, and this is the key part, that the UN will then say, 'We're going to take action if he fails to take action'. That's what we're looking for."

Powell, who is due back in New York on Monday for more consultations with Security Council permanent members and other key states, said the resolution should give Saddam "a short time, a matter of weeks."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has announced he will tour the Middle East this week to gather support for an initiative to persuade Iraq to allow the inspectors back and avoid a war.

UN weapons inspectors were withdrawn in 1998 but the chief inspector Hans Blix said his team could begin examining Iraq's arsenals within two weeks if Baghdad gave permission.

"First we would have to reach some practical agreements with Iraq on how the inspections would be carried out. Then we would send an exploratory mission," Blix told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

Top U.S. officials, meanwhile, stepped up the Bush administrations accusations that Saddam was linked to terrorism.

U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said "Iraq has clearly links with terrorism that includes al-Qaeda."

But Powell added "there is no smoking gun that would link the regime in Baghdad to 9/11."

Britain's Sunday Telegraph said a dossier to be released by Prime Minister Tony Blair on September 24 would contain evidence that Saddam's regime had trained al-Qaeda operatives.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in an interview with the BBC said the dossier will wrap up data already known about Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities.