UN inspectors flex muscles, Israel tests missile

11.45am

BAGHDAD - United Nations weapons inspectors flexed their muscles on Sunday, combing a complex housing Iraq's own arms Monitoring Directorate and leaving two senior Iraqi officials trapped inside and fuming for hours.

In Israel, the armed forces test-fired an Arrow missile interceptor, preparing to defend the Jewish state against any attack by Iraq in the event of a United States-led war in the Gulf.

Iraq fired 39 Scuds with conventional warheads at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, causing one death and extensive damage.

Iraqi officials said the UN experts searched 16 sites across Iraq, the largest number in a single day since the hunt for weapons of mass destruction resumed on Nov. 27 after a four-year gap.

US allies in Europe and the Middle East meanwhile pressed for a peaceful solution to head off war.

In Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced plans to make a "pan-Arab and historic" speech to the Iraqi people at 11am today (10pm NZDT) to mark Army Day.

Parliament Speaker Saadoun Hammadi said Iraq would fight with "all available means" and inflict heavy casualties on any US-British forces attacking his country.

"The people of Iraq will defend courageously with high morale and all available means against any American-British aggression," Hammadi told the official Iraqi News Agency.

"The aggressive America and Britain will fail miserably and suffer great loss," he added.

As Israel test-fired its missile interceptor, Tel Aviv was rocked by two apparent suicide bombings that killed 15 people and which experts said could force the United States to examine its priorities in the region.

Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser who still wields some influence behind the scenes, said the Bush administration was not doing enough to halt the violence between Israelis and Palestinians and said on CNN: "It is a priority at least as big as the others we face."

In Iraq, a Sunday inspection, sprung on the compound housing Baghdad's arms Monitoring Directorate, provoked protests from directorate chief General Hussam Mohammed Amin and visiting Iraqi UN Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri.

Witnesses said UN inspectors closed the main gate and blocked the entrance to the complex. For more than six hours, they stopped people and cars inside the complex, filmed cars, and searched vehicles and personnel.

"They wanted to exercise their maximum intrusiveness, maximum hardness of implementation of resolution 1441," fumed Amin, clad in military fatigues.

Inspectors are enforcing the UN Security Council resolution, passed in November, which orders Iraq to reveal any chemical, biological or nuclear programmes or long-range missile projects. Baghdad denies having such programmes or weapons.

The Boston Globe meanwhile reported that about 150 US Special Forces and CIA agents have been working inside Iraq for months to lay the groundwork for a possible US invasion.

The newspaper said the American teams are searching for Scud missile launchers, monitoring oil fields, marking minefield sites and helping US pilots bomb Iraqi air-defence systems. Jordanian, British and Australian commandos had on occasion joined the Americans.

US allies, fearing regional upheavals, are seeking ways to resolve the crisis and prevent a war to force Iraq to disarm.

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul was in Egypt on a Middle East tour to try to prevent a conflict but a Turkish newspaper said dozens of Turkish tanks were already in northern Iraq, where Kurds enjoy de facto autonomy from Baghdad.

Asked if Turkey would allow the United States to base its troops and aircraft in his country, Gul said that was a matter for the Turkish parliament.

"I mean, we are a democratic country, of course. According to our constitution, there are certain things that only parliament decides..." he said on CNN's Late Edition.

Before that, all diplomatic means must be exhausted, Gul said, although a senior US politician said his country was moving ever closer to war with Iraq.

"I think it becomes more and more likely every day," Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I agree that the president's saying it's a last option, and he hasn't made the decision yet, and I think that's entirely appropriate.

"But we are seeing the United States assuming a military posture, which makes it likely that we will act. We'll know in a few weeks, as we all know," the former presidential hopeful said.

The Sunday Times newspaper in London said Britain will begin deploying troops to the Gulf on Jan. 15, the first firm date for deployment by Washington's closest ally on the Iraq issue.

UN experts on Sunday also searched other sites, including a graphite facility, a hospital and a university.

They have yet to disclose any evidence of banned weapons and must report their findings to the Security Council by January 27.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq