RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin called yesterday for a quick solution to the Iraqi crisis using political and diplomatic means, and suggested no new United Nations resolutions were necessary.

　　``We favor a rapid resolution of the situation by political and diplomatic means, on the basis of existing U.N. Security Council regulations and in line with the principles of international law,'' Putin said as he accepted credentials from a group of new foreign emissaries to Moscow, including the ambassador from Iraq.

　　Iraq announced last week that it would accept the unconditional return of international inspectors nearly four years after they were forced out. Skeptical of Baghdad's intentions, the United States and Britain are pushing for a new U.N. resolution that would tighten the timetable for Iraq to comply with previous resolutions and authorize force if it fails to do so.

　　However, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted Monday as saying in Madrid that Russia would not necessarily oppose a new U.N.resolution aimed at making the work of U.N. weapons' inspectors more effective. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters in Moscow that Russia would be prepared for consultations.

　　In Berlin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refused Wednesday to endorse a British warning about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and said it remains opposed to war.

　　The German Government said experts were studying the dossier presented by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, which details allegations that Iraq has stockpiled chemical and biological weapons and is trying to develop nuclear arms.

　　``What we read there does not differ from what the German Government already knew,'' government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said Wednesday.

　　In another development, U.S. Marines poured off two U.S. warships Wednesday with equipment for a large-scale training exercise with Kuwaiti forces.

　　The U.S. military has described the war games, called Eager Mace, as routine training held periodically with the Kuwaitis since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

　　With most people in the region opposing a U.S. strike on Iraq, Arab governments have been sensitive about being seen as cooperating militarily with the United States. Even Kuwait has said it opposes a unilateral strike. (SD-Agencies)