BAGHDAD, December 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq has been convinced by other countries to give the most complete account possible of its weapons programs, diplomats here said, and is actively working to meet the December 8 U.N. deadline.

The government had firmly planned to stick to what has been repeated over and over again in recent months that Iraq no longer has any weapons of mass destruction, several diplomats said in separate interviews over recent days, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“They were warned they should not do that,” said one diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.

He explained that the warning passed to the Baghdad regime through traditional diplomatic channels.

Countries such as France and Russia, which have defended a multinational and legalist approach to the Iraqi crisis, but also Arab states have urged Baghdad to observe the U.N. deadline without any playing around.

Iraq will hand over the written declaration of its weapons arsenal to the United Nations on Saturday, December 7, a day ahead of the December 8 deadline, Hossam Mohammad Amin, head of the National Monitoring Directorate, the Iraqi counterpart to the U.N. inspections body, said Tuesday, December 3.

“They are working on it seriously ... it will not be empty,” another diplomat said.

“The Iraqis have indicated that they are prepared to provide information in their declaration.”

Meanwhile, U.N. arms experts inspected Tuesday a sensitive presidential palace site in Baghdad for the first time since they resumed work last week in key exercise of their sweeping new powers.

Two separate disarmament teams who had entered the huge walled compound without hindrance emerged nearly two hours later but refused to talk to the press, AFP reported.

However an official from Iraq’s National Monitoring Directorate who accompanied the U.N. experts along with palace guards suggested it had all gone off without incident.

“The inspectors went into all the buildings, inspected the service wings and the main blocks,” he said on condition of anonymity.

A U.N. account of the inspections was expected to be released later in the day.

The two teams wearing blue U.N. baseball caps had drawn up in six white vehicles at the front and back of the Al-Sijda and Al-Sejud palaces overlooking the Tigris river.

The security men at the front went to ask authorization and returned after a couple of minutes and opened the gates onto a broad tree-lined avenue.

At the same time a second team gained access through a back gate.

Journalists were kept out while the inspection went on and could not see inside the compound in which the two palaces, usually used to house official government guests, are divided by a wall.

But after the U.N. experts left, reporters were ushered into a huge high-ceilinged reception room for a 15-minute glimpse of the splendor of the Al-Sejud palace.

Intricate Arabic calligraphy commemorating the past glories of Iraq and its capital decorated the marble walls, while ornate carpets covered the floors.

Journalists were shown scale models of the palace exhibited in the entrance hall but no palace officials were on hand to discuss the day’s inspection.

There was nothing to suggest that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been in the compound at the time the inspectors swooped.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 of November 8 which launched the new inspections regime grants the inspectors wide powers to search anywhere for suspected weapons of mass destruction.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri meanwhile hit back at Washington's belittling of the extent of Baghdad's compliance with the new UN disarmament regime.

“The American administration has not stopped denigrating the work of the inspectors since before they began their operations” last Wednesday, Sabri said in an interview published by the official Arrafidayn weekly.

“The statements by U.S. officials are intended to perturb the work of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush had said late Monday that “so far, the signs are not encouraging.”

He told Baghdad bluntly that it must comply fully with the deadline set by a Security Council resolution to come clean about its banned armament programs or face war.

“Any act of delay, deception, or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance and has rejected the path of peace,” he said at the Pentagon after signing a defense spending bill.

Assessing the week since U.N. disarmament inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year absence, Bush said Saddam’s actions so far had only made him more skeptical about the Iraqi leader’s readiness to take the necessary steps to avoid war.

He pointed to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire at US and British air patrols in “no-fly” zones and the tone of Iraq’s written pledge to abide by Resolution 1441.

“A regime that fires upon American and British pilots is not taking the path of compliance. A regime that sends letters filled with protests and falsehoods is not taking the path of compliance,” he said.

Sabri reiterated Baghdad’s plea that it “has no weapons of mass destruction” and branded U.S. and British accusations to the contrary as “lies”.

“If the inspections are carried out in a professional, objective and non-interfering manner, they will prove the allegations of Washington and London are lies,” he said.