Iraq is considering the return of United Nations weapons inspectors, an adviser to the country's President, Saddam Hussein, has told CNN. "We have neither accepted nor rejected this," General Amer al-Sa'adi, Hussein's scientific adviser, told CNN in an interview, in marked contrast to Baghdad's previous categorical rejections of such a proposal. Until recently, Iraqi officials said Iraq would never allow weapons inspectors to return after they left ahead of a bombing mission by United States and Britain in 1998, which followed accusations Iraq was not cooperating with the inspectors. Sa'adi said the country was waiting for assurances from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.