BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 9 -- A senior Iraqi official said tonight that none of his nation's scientists is prepared to travel abroad for interviews with U.N. weapons inspectors, effectively ruling out chances the inspectors will be able to learn more about President Saddam Hussein's arms programs by questioning Iraqi experts in private.

"Nobody is ready to go outside to make an interview with UNMOVIC or the IAEA," said Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of Iraq's weapons monitoring directorate, referring to the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the bodies charged by the U.N. Security Council with determining whether Iraq possesses banned arms.

Although Iraq has agreed in principle to allow its scientists to leave the country for interviews, the government has signaled that they should not do so and should instead talk to the inspectors inside Iraq. Some scientists could still choose to disregard that guidance, but Amin's comment provided the strongest indication yet that this is unlikely, because Iraqis defying official policy in the past have met with severe punishment.

The interviews have emerged as a key issue in the confrontation between Iraq and the United States. The Bush administration has pressured U.N. inspectors to take important scientists and their families out of Iraq, saying debriefing sessions in another country would allow them to provide more candid disclosures about Iraq's alleged efforts to develop nuclear, chemical and biological arms.

After complaining that asking scientists to leave Iraq would violate international law, the government here relented late last month, largely because failing to do so would violate a Nov. 8 Security Council resolution requiring full cooperation with weapons inspections. U.S. officials have pointed to the interview issue as an important factor in deciding whether the United States will invade Iraq and try to destroy Hussein's Baath Party government.

Seeking not to run afoul of the resolution, Amin said individual scientists were free to decide whether they wanted to leave. "The matter is related to the person himself," he said. "Whether he will say, 'I accept,' or not, is something personal."

But Amin has made clear that he thinks they should not go, insisting "it's not necessary" for interviews to be conducted outside Iraq.

The inspectors have so far attempted to talk in private with two Iraqi experts. Both refused the interviews without Iraqi government representatives present.

One U.N. official said the inspectors likely would seek to interview other scientists in the next week. The official would not comment on whether any of the Iraqis would be asked to travel abroad. But Amin said one U.N. inspector has raised the possibility of taking some scientists to Cyprus. The inspectors use the eastern Mediterranean island as a staging area for personnel and supplies.

Despite Iraq's pledge to permit scientists to leave with their immediate families, some diplomats and U.N. officials say they believe the fear of retribution against extended family members may be dissuading some experts from leaving. "It's fine to take one's wife and children," one diplomat here said. "But what about the wife's brother? Or the husband's sister and her children? In Iraq, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins -- they're all considered close family members."

Earlier today, Hussein's chief science adviser, Gen. Amir Saadi, took issue with statements by U.N. officials that a lengthy declaration given by Iraq to the United Nations last month outlining its arms programs was incomplete. The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said the document "failed to answer a great many questions."

People who claim there are omissions in the report, Saadi said, either are "not fully acquainted with our voluminous declaration or they lost their way" in reading it.

Saadi and Amin also detailed what they said were questions asked by weapons inspectors aimed at "gathering intelligence." On Monday, Hussein assailed the inspectors for wanting to meet with Iraqi scientists and scour military facilities, saying such activities were aimed at collecting information for Iraq's enemies.

In a visit to the Shayk Mahzar airfield on Saturday, Amin said, the chief field inspector asked the base commander to outline the facility's chain of command, to detail construction at the site since 1998, to name his commander and to provide the base's phone number. During a search Christmas Day of an ammunition depot, he said, inspectors wanted to know about air defenses around the complex and whether any munitions had been recently moved.

"We think those questions are irrelevant to disarmament and they have an intelligence nature," he said.

A U.N. spokesman would not confirm whether the questions cited by Amin were asked by the inspectors, but said inquiries about people who work at a facility, new construction and the movement of supplies were a crucial part of the inspections.