U.N. weapons teams go into field on Muslim day of rest

U.N. weapons teams went into the field for the third consecutive day Friday, usually a day of rest in the Muslim world.

"We're going to be working seven days a week," said Caroline Cross, spokeswoman for the U.N. Special Commission, which oversees weapons inspections. "We want to get on with things and get as much done in as short a period of time as possible."The inspectors refused to talk with reporters, and Cross would not say where they were going. The inspectors generally did not work on Friday in the past.

Neither side has been saying much since the U.N. weapons inspectors returned Tuesday from Bahrain, where they had been evacuated last week amid fears of a U.S. missile strike.

Charles Duelfer, deputy director of UNSCOM, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from New York on Thursday that this was intentional.

"We're coming out of a crisis," Duelfer said. "We're trying to keep the temperature down as much as possible."

In sermons Friday during prayers, mosque preachers addressed the standoff that almost led to the American attack last week until Iraq pledged full cooperation with UNSCOM after limiting the work of inspectors.