U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is set to meet next week with a top Iraqi official, as pressure increases on Baghdad to allow U.N. inspectors back into Iraq to resume searching for banned weapons.

Mr. Annan is to meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on March seventh in New York -- Mr. Annan's first talks with Iraq in a year.

Iraq requested the meeting earlier this month, saying it wants to resume talks with Mr. Annan without preconditions. Mr. Annan had said earlier Iraqi conditions for talks were unacceptable. A U.N. spokesman says Mr. Annan hopes to focus the talks on U.N. resolutions that mandate the search for banned weapons. The U.N. Security Council cannot lift 11-year old economic sanctions against Iraq until inspectors verify that it no longer possesses or has the means to build weapons of mass destruction.

The Security Council banned Iraqi possession of such weapons after the 1991 Gulf war. Iraq has not allowed U.N. inspections since December, 1998. Earlier Monday, after talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Annan said a military strike on Iraq would be unwise at this time.

The Bush administration has said it would use everything from diplomacy to military action to prevent Iraq and other countries from spreading terrorism.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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