Baghdad, Iraq ? The U.N. chief weapons inspectors emerged from key talks with Iraq officials Sunday, saying they saw signs of a “change of heart” from Baghdad over disarmament demands and that further U.N. inspections were preferable to a strike.

In two days of meetings with Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, Iraq officials handed over documents on anthrax, VX nerve gas and missile development. But Blix said there was still no immediate agreement on a key demand, using American U-2 surveillance planes to help inspections.

“We are not at all at the end of the road,” Blix told The Associated Press. “But nevertheless I’m bound to note, to register, nuances, and this I think was a new nuance.”

Both Blix and ElBaradei — who left Baghdad Monday morning on a scheduled flight to Larnaca, Cyprus — avoided saying they were convinced Iraq now was ready to cooperate fully with the inspection program. Blix quipped that the “proof is in the pudding.”

However, their comments about signs of change likely will strengthen calls by France, Germany, Russia, China and others to allow more time for inspections — possibly several months — and undermine U.S. efforts to win international support for an imminent military showdown.

The weekend session, ahead of Blix and ElBaradei’s report this week to the U.N. Security Council, could help decide the next steps taken by the council in the months-long standoff that has left the Middle East suspended between war and peace.

But with tens of thousands of American troops in the Persian Gulf preparing for war, President Bush reiterated Sunday that it was time for action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Saddam “wants the world to think that hide-and-seek is a game that we should play. And it’s over,” Bush told congressional Republicans at a policy conference. “It’s a moment of truth for the United Nations. The United Nations gets to decide shortly whether or not it is going to be relevant in terms of keeping the peace, whether or not its words mean anything.”

Asked Sunday about Blix’s statement, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer noted that Bush has said, “Given the fact that Saddam Hussein is not disarming, time is running out.”

However, the United States was faced renewed opposition in Europe to an Iraq war. Germany’s defense minister said Sunday the Germany and France would present a proposal to the Security Council next week to send U.N. soldiers to disarm Iraq — a plan U.S. officials denounced as ineffective.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country holds veto powers on the council — reiterated his strong opposition to military action against Baghdad.

A U.N. weapons inspector carrying technical instruments walks behind the gate of the Badir al-Kubra Primary school in Baghdad. Inspectors searched the school yard Sunday. The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, on Sunday made a case for continuing inspections instead of launching a military strike.

Blix and ElBaradei, who make their next report to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, had gone into their weekend talks in Baghdad to press for greater cooperation on a range of issues — technical matters, such as using the U-2s and getting private access to scientists, and issues of substance, including answers to outstanding questions on biological and chemical weapons.

Blix told AP on Sunday that whereas in the past weeks Iraqi officials “belittled” the inspectors’ demands, “for the first time today I think they were focusing upon these issues.”

Blix said he had received assurances that Iraq would expand a commission to search for weapons and weapons programs and “relevant documents nationwide,” and that he had hopes that Iraq was taking the disarmament issue seriously.

During the two days of meetings, the Iraqis submitted a number of documents related to outstanding issues of anthrax, VX nerve gas and Iraqi missile development, Blix said.

He said those documents would have to be reviewed intensively by U.N. experts in the coming days to determine their value. Blix also said he was hopeful that Iraq would soon enact legislation banning weapons of mass destruction.

Blix also said “we had some discussions with their scientists,” but he did not elaborate.

ElBaradei said the talks showed “hopefully a beginning of a change of heart” from the Iraqis.

But he said that with the Security Council “impatient,” he and Blix told the Iraqis “we want to see quick progress, drastic change. Something spectacular has to happen, a new environment in the next days and weeks.”