Saddam Hussein is predicting victory if Iraq is attacked. Weapons inspectors are continuing their work in Iraq.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said he will achieve "certain victory" if there is a U.S.-led attack against his country.
The Iraqi leader is quoted in government-run newspapers as saying Iraq has no choice but to fight any military attack. He is quoted as asking, "what is the alternative, when an enemy tells you: I have to occupy you?"
In Cairo, another newspaper, al-Ahram, quotes U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as saying the United States expects to administer Iraq for "a certain period of time" after its liberation.
Ms. Rice told the paper the United States and its allies will have to maintain security to guard against acts of violence and guarantee humanitarian aid reaches the Iraqi people. Then, she said, the Iraqi people will be "perfectly capable of running their own affairs."
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, will return to Baghdad next Saturday, at the invitation of Iraq. They are have two days of talks with Iraqi officials about allowing weapons inspectors to interview Iraqi scientists in private.
The United Nations also wants Iraq to allow U-2 spy planes to fly over suspected weapons sites, and it wants a full Iraqi accounting of missing supplies of anthrax and VX nerve agent.
Mr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei are to report to the Security Council on February 14 on progress made toward disarming Iraq.
In Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors traveled north and south of Baghdad to investigate two missile facilities including a research and development company that specializes in the development of missile guidance and control systems.
Other teams checked on storage facilities for high explosives. A biological team searched a dairy factory, while chemical experts investigated irrigation storage facilities. Helicopters were used to fly to two undisclosed sites including one along Iraq's border with Syria.
