����WASHINGTON, April 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States has formally
responded to an Iraqi offer for sending a delegation to the country to
investigate the fate of a U.S. pilot whose plane was shot down early in
the Persian Gulf War in 1991, a Pentagon official said on Thursday.
����Baghdad sent an offer earlier this week to the State Department,via
the Red Cross, proposing that a U.S. team visit Iraq to determine what
happened to Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher.
����The Iraqi offer had several conditions, including that the media
cover any search team's activities and that American Scott Ritter, a
former U.N. weapons inspector who has been critical of some U.S. policies
toward Iraq, be part of any U.S. delegation.
����The Pentagon official said that Washington had issued a tentative
response to the Iraqi offer. the reply is thought to reject the conditions
made by Baghdad, while demanding full U.S. access to any sites, materials
or personnel it requests.
����The official said the United States would send a search team only
if Iraq can offer new information. Enditem
