Iraq destroys 10 banned missiles

10.30am

BAGHDAD - Iraq has used bulldozers to crush six more al-Samoud missiles under the supervision of UN inspectors, stepping up efforts to eliminate the banned weapons as it tries to avert a possible US-led attack.

Officials confirmed on Sunday 10 of the rockets had been destroyed so far. But a key adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Iraq would stop destroying them if Washington pressed ahead with plans to invade outside the authority of the United Nations.

"If it turns out that in early stages during this month America is not going the legal way...why should we continue (destroying the missiles)?" top scientific adviser General Amer al-Saadi told a news conference in response to a question.

In a new move to head off Washington's threat of military action to force it to disarm, Iraqi officials also opened talks on Sunday with weapons inspectors on VX nerve gas and anthrax stocks it says it has destroyed.

Saadi said excavations carried out by Iraq in recent weeks at sites near Baghdad proved that it had destroyed "important quantities" of the banned substances. He said the discussions with the experts would cover the findings.

Baghdad began scrapping its al-Samoud stocks by destroying four rockets on Saturday, meeting a key deadline set by chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, who says their range exceeds the 150-km (93-mile) limit allowed by previous UN resolutions.

Saadi said 10 of them had now gone.

"During the past two days there was destruction of al- Samoud 2 missiles, four yesterday and six today," he told the news conference. "There was a destruction of a casting chamber (on Sunday)." Iraq had around 120 of the missiles, he said.

Iraqi authorities decided not to release pictures or television footage of the destruction process -- despite the impact on world public opinion -- because it was "too harsh" and "unacceptable" for the Iraqi people to see, Saadi said.

UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) missile experts went to Taji base, 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, to oversee the missiles' destruction on Sunday, inspectors' spokesman Hiro Ueki said.

Iraq destroyed four of the white missiles with thin fins on Saturday at Taji by crushing them with large bulldozers. The Arabic word Samoud, which means steadfastness, is printed on every missile. A casting chamber was wrecked at another site.

Saadi said the weapons inspectors had carried out 853 inspections since they resumed their work last November. He also said the inspectors resumed private interviews with Iraqi scientists, describing Baghdad's cooperation as "full".

"In total, practically all the areas of concern to UNMOVIC in the subjects of remaining armaments questions have been addressed and this is an ongoing process," he said.

Blix, who will make a crucial report on Friday to the UN Security Council on Iraqi compliance, said destruction of the missiles would be "a significant piece of real disarmament".

Saadi said he did not expect Blix to visit Baghdad before his Security Council presentation. But he said the chief inspector might visit later this month.

Blix has ordered Iraq to destroy all the missiles and most components. The process is expected to take around two weeks.

Sunday's meeting between UN inspectors and Iraqi officials was a technical one to discuss Iraq's proposal for "quantitative verification" of VX and anthrax that Baghdad declared it had unilaterally destroyed, Ueki said.

Blix has criticised Iraq in the past for failing to give detailed information to back up its claim to have destroyed large quantities of chemical and biological weapons stocks.

- REUTERS