UNITED NATIONS. Mar 2: With the Security Council ex pected to. threaten "very severe .consequences!' iratrs UN ambassador said' Sunday that his government will honour an agreement to open suspected weapons sites to UN inspectors, reports AP.

But Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon said the inspections should not be open ended, even though no time limit is mentioned in the agreement signed last week with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The 15-member council was to meet Monday to consider a US-backed resolution, submit-

ted by Britain and Japan, endorsing the, Annan agreement, which reduced the possibility of a military strike by the United States Snd Britain.

The inspectors are trying to determine whether Iraq has complied with orders issued at the end of the Gulf War, to destroy all long-range missiles and mass destruction weapons. That is the main condition for the council to lift crippling economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 after Saddam sent his forces into Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War.

The final draft of the resolution warned of "very severe"

consequences if Baghdad breaks the accord. Earlier drafts used the phrase "severest consequences/'

Another report'says, "while war with Iraq has been averted for now, the crisis will not end duntll Saddam Hussein is removed from power. US lawmakers from both parties.

"I think we have got to change the objective and say that our nation is going to be on the side of liberating the people of Iraq from their prisons or from the terror of his dictatorship." Sen Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat, said Sunday on NBC’s ’’Meet the Press.”