Question: Please comment on the situation around Iraq.

Answer: The central theme of the upcoming General Assembly session, of course, will be the complex of issues linked to the struggle against terrorism. In a few days it will be a year since the tragedy which befell the United States on September 11. But we have always been saying that, unfortunately, Russia had encountered international terrorism much earlier and continues to encounter it. Therefore, Russia advocates that the international community should strengthen cooperation and coordination, and most importantly solidarity in combating this evil of the 21st century, and for this solidarity and collaboration to grow stronger it is necessary to consolidate the legal basis of the struggle against international terrorism. Therefore, at this session of the UN General Assembly Russia will actively seek to get appropriate resolutions and decisions adopted, which would create a legal basis for continued joint endeavor in the struggle against terrorism.

It is very important that the antiterrorist struggle and what unites the international community should not be used for achieving other aims, above all interference in the domestic affairs of other sovereign states. So that serious, crucial, complex and painstaking work is ahead, which, from our point of view, must contribute to strengthening the international coalition which has emerged during the last year. This is a new phenomenon in international relations since World War II. In its time the international community united in the fight against Nazism, and is now uniting in the fight against terrorism, and it is very important that this process of unification should be strengthened. Russia will help this in every possible way.

I repeat: we have experienced and continue to experience a problem relating to actions of terrorists. It is in the North Caucasus, it is Georgia, from whose territory international terrorists are regularly carrying out their criminal actions on the territory of Russia. Of course, the international community and Russia cannot put up with such a state of affairs. I think that the decisions which will be adopted at this session of the UN General Assembly must demonstrate to the entire world that states are uniting, uniting in the struggle against this evil and that all states must strictly fulfill the decisions and resolutions which are adopted in the UN.

Question: What can you say regarding the ultimatum to Iraq, the so called "Chirac plan"?

Answer: I think that it is too early to speak of any plans right now. Russia advocates the return of international observers to Iraq. This arises from the appropriate resolutions of the UN Security Council and only as a result of the work of the international observers is it possible to draw conclusions whether Iraq has or does not have weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or a program for the production of weapons of mass destruction. Only based on the findings of the international inspectors is it possible to draw some or other conclusions, therefore we advocate their return to Iraq and their work there, but, of course, the Security Council should clearly formulate the mandate for the international observers and the period of time for their activity in Iraq. And, of course, the return of the observers and cooperation by Iraq with them must open the way for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. All of this arises, I repeat, from the appropriate resolutions of the UN Security Council. Iraqi settlement in general has to be based on a firm legal basis, which is available, and all states must strictly follow these principles.

Question: Will you discuss the theme of Iraq during your meeting with the US President?

Answer: On September 20 in Washington we will have the first meeting of the commission set up by the Presidents of Russia and the US. It consists of the ministers of foreign affairs and defense ministers. We will examine a broad range of issues, primarily the issue relating to the implementation of the agreements that were reached during the visit of the US President to Russia. It is questions linked to strategic stability, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty and the issues of missile defense and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and, of course, the problems relating to so called local conflicts. I am saying the so called local conflicts because they are local in character, but they are global in their possible consequences.