BAGHDAD, November 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - UN experts arrived in Baghdad Monday, November 25, to begin the first inspections of suspected Iraqi weapons sites in nearly four years, as a high-level U.S. government team is secretly drawing up plans on how to run Iraq after any war ousts the current regime, according to news reports.

Backed by a tough new UN mandate which threatens Iraq with war if it fails to cooperate, the 11 inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and six from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Iraq from Cyprus aboard a white C-130 Hercules transport bearing the letters UN in black. The teams will resume inspections on Wednesday, November 27.

Earlier Monday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Iraq to cooperate fully with the weapons inspectors, saying it was the "only way" to avoid war.

Iraq must "fully cooperate with the inspectors and unreservedly respect its obligations," Annan said in Paris where he held talks with French President Jacques Chirac. "It is the only way to avoid military conflict in the region," Annan said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. inter-agency Executive Steering Group's post-war blueprint foresees a three-phase plan, starting with military rule under a US general with a sizable occupying force, followed by an international civilian administration, said U.S. News and World Report weekly news magazine.

The final phase would be a representative, multi-ethnic government that rejects weapons of mass destruction, the report said quoting senior officials.

Optimistic officials see a new Iraqi government within two years, although State Department officials are calling for flexibility on the timetable.

"It's going to be like pornography," one senior administration official told U.S. News. "You know it when you see it."

Pentagon officials have gone through World War II plans for the occupation of Japan and Germany, delving into details such as how to denazify Germany as they discuss, an experience the magazine says, has "many parallels to stripping away the pervasive authority of Saddam's Baath Party."

"There's a lot of thoughtful analysis" by the group, a senior advisor to the Pentagon said, as discussions reach the Deputies Committee level - a tight group of top officials from the Defense Department, Joint Chiefs of Staff, State Department, CIA, National Security Council and vice president's office.

One of the most contentious issues is the role of Iraqi exile groups, with the Pentagon pushing for a "robust" role for the London-based Iraqi National Congress, which one State Department official has dismissed as a "Mercedez-Benz riding, fine-hotel-staying opposition".

However, some have suggested the U.S. fund and run the INC much as it supported the "contra" rebels in Nicaragua in the 1980s, U.S. News said.

"You have to work with the Iraqi exiles," it quotes a government official as saying. "Everyone else has been shot."

Under the Security Council resolution adopted November 8, the inspection teams have unprecedented powers to search Iraqi sites and question Iraqi scientists about suspected nuclear, biological and chemical arms programs.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said they will operate "like detectives" in inspecting suspected Iraqi arms sites.

"We operate like detectives and when we have clues, we have to be flexible and change our plans," she said.

"One of the most important points of our strategy is the ability to conduct unannounced inspections, we will never reveal where we are going," she told reporters upon her arrival at the hotel housing the inspectors in Baghdad.

"We have had a lot of promises of cooperation, we believe that this is a good start, but we have suspicious minds, we are here to test cooperation among other things," added Fleming, a U.S. national.

" We've no doubt that he (Saddam Hussein) has weapons of mass destruction", says Blair

The inspectors will start by checking the sites left under electronic surveillance by their predecessors from the now defunct UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) which pulled out of Baghdad four years ago, on the eve of U.S. and British air attacks.

Frenchman Jacques Baute will be leading the IAEA inspection team and Greek Demetrios Perricos will head the UNMOVIC group. Members of the teams come from Australia, Britain, Egypt, Finland, Russia and the United States.

In London, meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday that Baghdad will have defied the United Nations if it claims to have no weapons of mass destruction.

"We've no doubt that he has weapons of mass destruction, so let's wait and see what he actually says," the Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference.

"This has got to be a situation where there is an honest declaration by Saddam and should it be found that that declaration was dishonest, then that most certainly would be a material breach (of the UN resolution)," Blair said.

"It's not a game of hide and seek.., it's not a game where the inspectors go in and see if they can find the stuff and he sees if he can conceal it," he added.

British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon was expected to call up military reservists, in readiness for any British participation in a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, according to media reports.

Opinion in Britain is divided on the question of a war in Iraq, but the number in favor is growing, according to a poll in the left-wing Guardian daily Monday.

Forty percent were against a war against Baghdad. But those in favor increased from 32 percent at the start of November to 39 percent, according to the survey.

The poll was carried out by the ICM institute on November 21 and 22 among 1,047 adults.