They include demands that investigators be accompanied by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter - now a critic of US policy on Iraq.

Speicher was the first US serviceman lost in the 1991 Gulf War

American intelligence agencies have been investigating reports that the pilot, Michael Scott Speicher, may be alive and in captivity in Iraq.

The case has returned to prominence amid reports that Iraq could become the next target in the US-led "war on terror" unless UN weapons inspectors are allowed back into the country.

Red Cross supervision

"To prove our goodwill... and to refute repeated American allegations against Iraq, we express readiness to receive an American team to probe the issue," an Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman said.

As well as Mr Ritter, a US media delegation has to go along with the team "to cover and document" the visit, under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Lt Commander Speicher was listed as killed in action after his F-18 fighter jet was downed in a fireball over Iraq on 17 January 1991 - the first week of the Gulf War.

The US believes Saddam Hussein knows what happened to Speicher

But in an unprecedented move last year, the US military changed his status to missing in action following unconfirmed reports that he was still alive.

Asked about the Iraqi offer in a television interview, Vice-President Dick Cheney said he must first examine whether it was a "serious proposition".

Iraq's announcement comes two weeks after the US brought up the issue at a meeting of a commission in Geneva that groups Iraq, the ICRC and Gulf War allies.

The State Department said afterwards that the US had "underscored that Iraq continued to shirk its responsibility to answer the many questions about Speicher's fate.

The case gained renewed public attention in the US after a recent Washington Times report said that British investigators had obtained information from Iraqi defectors that a US pilot was being held captive.

Although some military officials stressed caution over the veracity of such reports, others are convinced that the Speicher case must be resolved.

In 1995 US investigators located the crash site in Iraq and determined that the pilot could have ejected safely before the crash.