Blix paints mixed picture of Iraq

UNITED NATIONS - Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix has accused Iraq of omissions and violations in its arms declarations but has refrained from declaring that Baghdad had utterly failed to comply, providing ammunition to those for and against US war plans.

In a report to the UN Security Council this morning, Blix told 10 foreign ministers there was no evidence Iraq had banned weapons of mass destruction, although he could not exclude this. And he questioned some of the intelligence Secretary of State Colin Powell had delivered to the council last week.

With US and British forces massed in the Gulf region for a possible invasion of Iraq, Blix told Iraq to "squarely tackle" serious questions on its stocks of anthrax, the nerve agent VX and long-range missiles, some of which he said were an outright violation of UN resolutions.

But unlike his previous harsh report, Blix steered a course which provided reasons to Security Council members, such as France, which want inspections to be expanded and the United States and Britain, which say war may be the only recourse to force Iraq to disarm.

Powell accused Iraq of playing tricks on the United Nations and said the inspection process could not go on endlessly.

"We cannot allow this process to be endlessly strung out," he said, mocking Baghdad's claim that it is cooperating with inspectors and disputing the anti-war argument that inspections should continue even without full Iraqi compliance.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said inspections needed more time. "The use of force is not justified at this time. There is an alternative to war -- disarming Iraq through inspections," he said to loud applause, unusual in the staid council gallery.

And with analysts predicting the United States would invade Iraq in mid-March, de Villepin proposed the 15-nation Security Council should hold another ministerial meeting on March 14.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov agreed and said inspections were proceeding smoothly and "moving in the right direction." He said "force can be resorted to, but only when all other remedies have been exhausted."

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan called for more inspections but Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio sided with Washington, saying Iraq had not cooperated and the council would have to assume its responsibilities.

Several other members, including Mexico, tried not to take sides but Chile backed France's position. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the real issue was "how we deal with proliferators elsewhere across the globe" if Iraq were allowed to defy the United Nations.

Mohamed ElBaradei, in charge of nuclear arms inspectors, told the council a number of issues were still under investigation but declared again he found no weapons.

"We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq," said ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

The most serious new violation by Iraq Blix presented on Friday was regarding its long-range missiles, which he said Baghdad had tested beyond the range permitted by the Security Council. Blix said he would tell Iraq they were "proscribed" as well as some of the engines used in them.

A panel of six independent experts Blix organised this week determined that Iraq's Al Samoud 2 missile project is illegal because its range exceeds the 93-mile limit first set down in a 1991 Security Council resolution.

Blix said that an arms declaration submitted by Iraq in December omitted data needed to account for past stocks of anthrax, the nerve agent VX as well as on long-range missiles

"Although I can understand that it may not be easy for Iraq in all cases to provide the evidence needed, it is not the task of the inspectors to find it," he said. "Iraq itself must squarely tackle this task and avoid belittling the questions."

Blix also cast doubt on some intelligence submitted by Powell. He questioned a section of Powell's evidence to the Security Council on Feb. 5, saying that two satellite images shown in his presentation did not prove that Iraq was clearing the site of forbidden munitions.

"The reported movement of munitions at the site could just as easily have been a routine activity as a movement of proscribed munitions in anticipation of an imminent inspection," Blix said.

Hours before the inspectors were due to speak, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein issued a decree banning the import and production of weapons of mass destruction, which will be followed up by legislation.

This had been requested by the council for a decade and recently by Blix, along with U-2 spy plane overflights and private interviews with scientists, which Baghdad has conceded.

Blix said he could not say how many weapons of mass destruction, if any, Iraq had, saying he had only found so far a small number of empty chemical munitions.

"One must not jump to the conclusion that they exist," Blix said. "However, that possibility is also not excluded. If they exist, they should be presented for destruction. If they do not exist, credible evidence to that effect should be presented."

As the inspectors reported, the US military said aircraft taking part in U.S.-British patrols attacked Iraqi missile systems in the southern "no-fly" zone on Friday, the fifth strike on Iraqi targets in a week.

On financial markets, US stocks added to gains in late morning trading with some traders speculating the Blix report meant war was not imminent but later ran out of steam as fears returned. Oil prices rose to two-year highs on war fears.

Millions of people were expected to take to the streets of towns and cities around the world at the weekend to demonstrate against a looming U.S.-led war on Iraq in the biggest peace protests since the Vietnam war. More than 100,000 anti-war activists turned out in Melbourne to kick off the protests.

At issue is whether the United States and Britain can follow up Friday's meeting with a fresh UN resolution implicitly authorising war amid deepening rifts not only on the Security Council, but also within NATO and the European Union.

A resolution could be circulated as early as this weekend but most diplomats believe next week is more likely.

France, Russia and China, who have veto power in the 15-member Council, as well as Germany and other members, want to beef up inspections, triple the number of arms experts and send in UN security guards to "freeze" suspected sites.

So far most council members support them but the United States and Britain have just begun lobbying with Powell meeting council members in separate groups after the public meeting.

The United States and Britain hope to get the minimum nine positive votes required for adoption of a resolution and possibly risk a veto. France is conducting a similar lobbying effort in hopes a US move toward war will not get the minimum votes and spare it a veto.

- REUTERS