Inspectors find empty chemical warheads in Iraq

12.00 pm

BAGHDAD - UN weapons inspectors in Iraq say they have found empty rocket warheads designed to carry chemical warfare agents, but a US official has said it does not represent a "smoking gun" that could mean war.

Calling it a "storm in a teacup," Iraq denied they were part of any banned secret arms programme. A top Baghdad official said Iraq declared them to the United Nations but in any case they were obsolete old stock that had been forgotten about.

UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said some UN inspectors believed the warheads may not be been declared in Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration submitted to the UN Security Council last month. But he said that in view of Baghdad's denials "we still have to check further".

The United States is massing forces ready to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if ordered. An invasion could be triggered, and possibly gain international support, if the inspectors find "smoking gun" evidence that Saddam is breaking vows made after the 1991 Gulf War to give up chemical, nuclear and biological weapons and ballistic missiles.

But the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the empty casings did not amount to that: "A smoking gun would be if you found a big stockpile with chemicals."

Ueki said in Baghdad that inspectors had gone to the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area, 120 km (75 miles) south of the capital, to view bunkers built in the late 1990s and inspected by UN arms teams in the mid 1990s.

"The team discovered 11 empty 122 mm chemical warheads and one warhead that requires further evaluation," he said in a statement. "The warheads were in excellent condition and were similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s.

"The team used portable X-ray equipment to conduct preliminary analysis of one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing," he said.

But the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, General Hussam Mohammad Amin, said: "These are 122 mm rockets with an empty warhead. There are no chemical or biological agents or weapons of mass destruction.

"These rockets are expired ... they were in closed wooden boxes ... that we had forgotten about," he added, challenging the UN to disprove that and calling it a "storm in a teacup."

He said the rockets had a range of about 11 miles.

But some UN experts said the warheads could have contained the highly toxic nerve gas sarin, which Iraq began producing in 1984. But they said this needed further analysis.

UN inspectors on Thursday also search the home of two Iraqi scientists, Ueki said.

One scientist was a physicist, the other a nuclear expert, who was carrying a box of documents when he left his house that inspectors were examining.

Chief UN inspector Hans Blix and his counterpart from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, go to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on Sunday and Monday, mainly on Baghdad's failure to fill in missing gaps a 12,000-page declaration handed to the UN Security Council.

The declaration was required under a November 8 council resolution that gives Iraq one more chance to disarm or face "serious consequences."

Blix, in Brussels for talks with European Union officials, said Iraq must prove it has destroyed banned weapons and let its scientists answer questions freely to defuse what he called a "very dangerous" situation.

"The message we want to bring to Baghdad is, the situation is very tense and very dangerous and everybody wants to see a verified and credible disarmament of Iraq," Blix said in Brussels, where he met European Union officials.

Oil prices hit two-year highs after Blix's remarks, which renewed fears of a supply crunch if war cuts Iraqi exports.

IMPORTANT DATE

After talks in Baghdad, Blix and ElBaradei are due to deliver a full report on inspections and Iraq's cooperation to the 15-nation UN Security Council on January 27.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said US President George W. Bush has not made a decision about whether to go to war but called January 27 "an important date."

"Beyond that events will dictate timetables," he added.

Blix said he was "almost sure" the Security Council diplomats would request another report in February. But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Blix told him the time for inspections was "not very long."

Diplomatic efforts to avoid war intensified with Russia, a veto-holding member of the Security Council, dispatching Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov to Baghdad on Thursday.

Turkey, which also opposes war in Iraq, has invited five Middle Eastern leaders to Ankara next week for a summit.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said he was worried the United States was increasing pressure on inspectors "by certain circles in Washington".

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq