Blix gives sharp critique of Iraq arms disclosure

Update - 10.00am

UNITED NATIONS - With the United States escalating threats of war, the chief UN arms inspector sharply criticised Iraq today for not disclosing all its long range missile, chemical and biological arms programmes.

After two months of inspections, the reports by top inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to the UN Security Council immediately fuelled US warnings that time was running out for Iraq but prompted China, Russia, Germany, France to say the inspections needed more time.

Blix delivered his toughest assessment yet on Iraq's cooperation, particularly on Baghdad's 12,000-page arms declaration submitted on Dec 7. However, he did not corroborate US claims that Baghdad had rebuilt its arsenal, saying he could not give a verdict one way or another.

"It is not enough to open doors. Inspection is not a game of catch as catch can," said Blix, in charge of chemical, biological and ballistic arms teams. "Iraq appears not to have come to genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it."

Blix disclosed that Iraq had test-fired two new types of long-range missiles beyond the permitted range in what could be a clear violation of UN resolutions. He also said his teams found a new site containing a precursor to mustard gas.

Blix, however, did not ask for more inspection time. ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, did so and told the council he had "found no evidence that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapons programme since the elimination of the programme in the 1990s."

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Iraq did not have much more time to comply and that the United States would decide its next step after consulting government leaders this week.

"The issue is not how much more time the inspectors need ... but how much more time Iraq should be given to turn on the lights and become clean," Powell said. "The answer is not much more time. Iraq's time for choosing peaceful disarmament is fast coming to an end."

Powell on Sunday also raised anew Washington's claim of links between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, saying Baghdad had "clear ties to terrorist groups, including al Qaeda." But several members of Congress said they had yet to see supporting evidence, especially over the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States blamed on bin Laden.

Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, told reporters his country had disclosed everything.

"We have no hidden reports at all. We gave everything and we put it in our report with the 12,000 pages and I think they have to carefully read this report," Aldouri said.

The Security Council debates the Iraq crisis again on Wednesday, a day after President George W Bush's State of the Union address in which he is expected to lay out the case for a possible war with Iraq.

But whether or not the United States will agree to another Security Council resolution authorising war remains in doubt. Diplomats said Britain had drafted such a document, which will be a subject of discussion between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Camp David meeting on Friday.

Blix's presentation did little to dispel the fear of war haunting world financial markets. Major stock indices, US Treasuries, the dollar and oil weakened after his report. The council will hear from the inspectors again on Feb. 14.

Outside UN headquarters, hundreds of people protested against the war, holding up signs reading, "Let the Inspectors Work" and "No to Bush's Oil War." Seventeen people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.

China, one of many nations opposed to war, was typical of opposition in the Security Council to short-circuiting inspections. Its UN envoy, Zhang Yishan, told reporters, "I think it is the opinion of most of the members that since we have started this process and there is no clear reason to stop it, that we should continue."

France's ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, echoed President Jacques Chirac saying the international community needed more "active cooperation from Iraq and we need more time."

But Britain, which is amassing troops in the Gulf to augment the US military build-up, while critical of Iraq, did not call for the inspections process to end soon.

However, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the inspections a "charade" that showed Saddam was "cooperating on process but not on substance."

Blix, a 74-year-old Swedish diplomat in charge of chemical, biological and ballistic arms teams, listed a series of unresolved issues.

He said that documents Iraq submitted in its Dec. 7 weapons declaration had not answered key questions. Among them were the whereabouts of the deadly VX nerve gas, 2 tonnes of nutrients or growth media for biological agents, such as anthrax, 550 artillery shells filled with mustard gas and an accounting of 6,500 chemical bombs.

His teams have also found that Iraq obtained missile engines as well as raw material for rocket fuel and chemical agents, a violation of an arms embargo that is part of 12-year-old UN sanctions.

And despite assurances from Iraq that it would encourage its scientists to submit to private interviews, no such talks have taken place and Baghdad has blocked the use of U-2 surveillance flights over all parts of Iraq.

Blix's teams, however, found thousands of documents hidden in the home of an Iraqi scientist, and at least 16 empty and undeclared chemical warheads, which he said were still being tested and analysed.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq