Baghdad, Iraq ? An influential Iraqi newspaper on Sunday criticized Secretary of State Colin Powell’s dismissal of an Iraqi offer to talk with the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Baghdad.

Powell said Saturday in the Philippines that he doesn’t take seriously an Iraqi expression of interest in allowing the return of U.N. inspectors, who have been barred since they left the country ahead of December 1998 U.S.-led airstrikes.

“Inspection is not the issue, disarmament is – making sure that the Iraqis have no weapons of mass destruction,” Powell said. Washington suspects Iraq has secret caches of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Iraq says nothing remains.

Babil newspaper, owned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s eldest son Odai, said Powell’s remarks showed Washington isn’t interested in resuming inspections, but only in using the issue “to achieve evil colonial goals to dominate the world.”

“How would Powell know Iraq is clear of weapons of mass destruction without having the inspectors execute a fair inspection program to search for such weapons in Iraq and verify that the country has dismantled them?” Babil asked.

Last week, the Iraqi government invited chief inspector Hans Blix to Baghdad, hinting inspections could be renewed after nearly four years. The U.S. policy is to topple Saddam, and Iraq’s gesture comes amid escalating talk of military action.

President Bush also has shrugged off the Iraqi offer, saying Saturday: “Nothing’s changed.”