UNITED NATIONS?U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will meet Iraq’s foreign minister in April for two days of talks, hoping to focus on the return of arms inspectors to the Mideast nation, Annan’s spokesman Fred Eckhard said Monday.

Eckhard said Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri will meet April 18 and 19 in New York, stressing that two days of talks might be warranted.

Annan is “hoping for substantive and focused discussions, specifically of the return of arms inspectors to Iraq,” Eckhard said.

U.S. officials said the discussions should concentrate on returning inspectors as soon as possible. Last month, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U.N. chief’s talks with Iraq should be short because there was only one issue?letting the inspectors back.

U.N. sanctions on Baghdad cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been eliminated.