"This decision cannot be automatic. It requires the fulfilment of certain conditions stipulated in relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Iraq," Ivanov told reporters on the sidelines of a foreign policy forum in Moscow.

"To take such a decision, we have to assure ourselves whether there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or not," he added.

An unnamed Russian foreign ministry official said earlier Thursday that Moscow wanted UN weapons inspectors, who pulled out of Iraq on the eve of the US-led war in late March, to return to the country to verify US and British allegations that it was developing weapons of mass destruction.

US President George W. Bush said Wednesday he would soon submit a UN resolution on ending the 12-year-old crippling economic sanctions, which put trade in Iraqi oil under UN control.

Moscow fears that allowing Iraqi to trade its substantial oil resources freely on the world market could damage Russia's own economy, which is heavily reliant on oil exports.

It wants the United Nations to play a central role in the reconstruction of post-war Iraq, fearing that lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq could be allocated almost exclusively to the US-led coalition that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Russia has been a fierce opponent of the US--British invasion of Iraq and cast doubt on the accusations that Baghdad was developing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

As one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power, it could block any move to lift UN sanctions against Iraq.

SPACE.WIRE