United Nations ? The Security Council asked chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix on Tuesday to brief members next week, as the United States fielded its own disarmament teams inside Iraq.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants inspections in Iraq to resume as quickly as possible. But the return of arms experts is sensitive for the council — bitterly divided before the war and now divided over what role the United Nations should play once the fighting ends.

Most of the council including Britain, the closest U.S. ally, support the inspectors’ return. But Washington, which blamed Blix for hurting its drive for international support in the run-up to the war, has not invited U.N. inspectors to take part in the disarmament process.

Instead, the United States has tried to hire away some U.N. experts and has sent its own teams to search for weapons of mass destruction.

Under Security Council resolutions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, U.N. inspectors must certify that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs have been dismantled before sanctions can be lifted.