BAGHDAD -- Three U.S. congressmen arrived in Iraq on Friday to assess the humanitarian situation after a decade of sanctions and urge Baghdad to give weapons inspectors unfettered access to avoid war.

"We came over here because we do not want war. We want to see what the circumstances are for the Iraqi people and to see what the consequences of another war might be," Washington Democratic representative Jim McDermott told reporters at Saddam Airport in Baghdad.

McDermott was accompanied by his Democratic colleagues, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California, Reuters reported.

"Our desire is that Saddam Hussein allow unfettered inspections, we do not want any question about that because we want this to be peacefully and diplomatically resolved," McDermott added.

Iraq has been under UN sanctions for more than a decade. The United States and Iraq severed relations shortly before Washington led a coalition of forces that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in 1991.

The U.S. lawmakers had talks with officials at the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Iraqi Health Minister Umeed Madhat Mubarak to get first-hand information on the health status of Iraqi children.

"It is pretty clear that the situation for children in Iraq had deteriorated over the last 12 years from what it was prior to the Persian Gulf War and the sanctions are having an impact," McDermott told reporters after the visit.

"Those who say that the United States should go to war are simply looking at this issue as though there is going to be no damage done, and I think people need to know what happens to kids in this country," he said.

-------- Inspection Controversy ------------ Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, under intense world diplomatic pressure backed by the threat of U.S. military action, agreed last week to allow UN weapons inspectors back without conditions after an absence of nearly four years.

The United States, whose declared policy is to seek the Iraqi leader's removal, treated the move with disdain, saying Saddam could not be trusted, and vowed to work for a tough new UN resolution on Iraq.

UN inspectors were imposed on Iraq after a U.S.-led coalition ejected Baghdad's invasion forces from Kuwait. The inspectors, saying their work was being obstructed by Iraq, left in December 1998 on the eve of a U.S. and British bombing campaign and have not been allowed since.

McDermott said the United States should try to defuse the crisis with Iraq through diplomatic and peaceful channels.