``Prakash Shah has held further meetings with the Iraqi authorities and the dialogue is continuing,'' the spokesman said. Shah, special envoy of UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, met Iraq's deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz on Thursday and handed him a letter from Annan. He said after the meeting he (Shah) had told Aziz that Iraq should resume its cooperation with the UN special commission in charge of scrapping Iraq's biological, ballistic missile and chemical weapons and the International Atomic Energy Agency responsible for monitoring Iraq's alleged nuclear weapons programme.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Friday that the US would be ready to use force if necessary to counter any threats from Iraq. Iraq however has said it will not change its conditions for resuming cooperation with UN weaponsinspectors.

``This will only make Iraq more determined on acquiring its legitimate right for the implementation of paragraph 22 of UN Security Council resolution number 687,'' a spokesman for the Iraqi information ministry said yesterday.

The comment came more than 24 hours after Albright's statement.