"It is fundamentally important that the inspectors' work should continue, particularly given the instability of the current situation in Iraq," Ivanov was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as telling Russian reporters in Vienna.

"If there are mass destruction weapons or their elements in Iraq, there is a real danger that they could fall into the hands of terrorists," Ivanov said after talks with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Earlier this month, the head of a US team of 1,200 experts scouring Iraq for weapons of mass destruction reported to the US Congress that he found none of the nuclear, biological or chemical weapons that President George W. Bush said Saddam Hussein had and were an imminent danger to the world.

Both the US and British governments have been accused of embellishing intelligence reports about Iraq's weapons arsenal to justify going to war.

Ivanov said that only inspectors with the UN inspections team known as UNMOVIC and the IAEA could assess any findings.

"All the work currently being done in Iraq to look for weapons of mass destruction is important, but the last word still rests with the UNMOVIC and the IAEA," Ivanov said.

"It is important that UNMOVIC and the IAEA should continue to carry out the mission entrusted to them by the UN Security Council," Ivanov said.

The IAEA is mandated both by UN resolution 1441 and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to conduct inspections to ensure that Iraq has no nuclear weapons programs.

The United States is insisting on carrying out its own search for biological and chemical weapons in Iraq and has barred the original IAEA and UNMOVIC teams from going back to Baghdad.

WAR.WIRE