Iraq invites CIA in challenge to US over arms

12.00pm

BAGHDAD - Iraq, seeking to prove it has no weapons of mass destruction, invited the CIA on Sunday (Monday NZT) to come and point out the sites where it believes incriminating evidence can be found.

Amir al-Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam Hussein, told a news conference UN inspections over the past four weeks had shown US and British charges that Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons were baseless lies.

But speaking against a background of ever clearer threats of war from Washington and London, he said Baghdad was still ready to answer further questions from the Western allies.

He said "rehashed allegations" were based on a previous UN inspection mission, which he accused of falsifying evidence to suggest Iraq had continued to develop the deadly nerve agent VX.

Washington and London say there are holes in the arms dossier that Iraq presented to the United Nations two weeks ago and have made no secret of revving up their war machines to back up demands that Saddam come clean, 11 years after the Gulf War.

But Iraq denies possessing any weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam himself demanded the United States stop harassing him: "The world should tell America now there is no need for more aggression and sanctions on Iraq in order to let it cooperate freely (with the U.N.)," he told visiting delegates.

Saadi, addressing US and British accusations, said: "We are ready to deal with each of those questions if you ask us. We do not even have any objections if the CIA sent somebody with the inspectors to show them the suspected sites."

In Washington, a White House spokesman declined to comment directly on the invitation to the CIA and hinted that the Bush administration could be growing impatient with the pace of UN disarmament efforts.

"While we have not given up on disarming Iraq through the United Nations, we are now entering a final phase in how we compel Saddam Hussein to disarm," said the official, who was authorised to speak for the White House but asked not to be named.

The United States has offered to share intelligence with the UN inspectors to help them find evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

London defence expert Paul Beaver said Saadi's remarks seemed designed to undermine the US and British case and to appeal to those countries less convinced of the merits of war:

"This is an Iraqi attempt to counter what is becoming quite a sophisticated campaign in the West ... almost to create a war atmosphere," Beaver told the BBC.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said: "We'll welcome any clarification the Iraqis can provide us with. But we want evidence -- procurement records, faxes, original documents, any documents ... But not fabricated documents."

The United States last week condemned Iraq's arms declaration as incomplete and therefore a "material breach" of a UN Security Council resolution adopted in November. Defying the resolution carries an implicit threat of eventual war.

Saadi addressed specific questions raised by Washington and London, for example over attempts to obtain uranium and efforts to develop VX, which he said Iraq had given up. He accused the last inspectors, who left four years ago, of tainting Iraqi samples with VX to fabricate evidence against Baghdad.

He also said the new UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix had asked Iraq for a list of certain scientists working in key fields and this would be provided by the end of the year.

The United States and Britain are, according to a British Defense Ministry source, planning a massive seaborne invasion if war broke out against Iraq, a strategy planners hope would make troops less exposed to chemical or biological attack.

Israel, also planning ahead, took steps against a possible strike by Iraq, scheduling joint exercises with US forces and gas mask lessons for children, Israeli officials said Sunday.

Israeli media reported the country would go on high alert from January 15 in anticipation that hostilities would erupt in the month following January 27, date of a report to the UN Security Council by arms inspection chiefs.

Israel's Defense Ministry would not confirm the date. Israel is worried Saddam will respond to any US strike by firing missiles at it, armed with chemical or biological warheads.

Some 1,000 US troops are expected in Israel this week for an exercise involving U.S.-made Patriot missiles, which were largely ineffective in intercepting the 39 Scud missiles that Iraq fired at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.

The Patriot has since been upgraded and Israel has developed and deployed the more effective Arrow anti-missile system.

UN experts in Iraq pursued their hunt for banned arms on Sunday. Iraqi officials said sites searched by the inspectors included a space research center in Baghdad.

Scores of UN arms inspectors are scouring Iraq, but Washington has made clear it believes it has enough evidence of its own to justify military action.

The United States is forging ahead with a build-up that may see over 100,000 troops in the region in January or February.

The New York Times said US intelligence agents were working with Kurdish groups in northern Iraq opposed to Saddam.

In Baghdad, Saadi said US questions over whether Iraq had disclosed its efforts to obtain uranium from South Africa or Niger had already been discussed in talks with Blix.

He said he told the two men last month Iraq tried to obtain uranium oxide, not uranium itself, from Niger in the mid-1980s but never tried to get such material from South Africa. "There were no new procurements or attempts to procure," he said.

Uranium oxide, the mineral form in which uranium is usually found, can be used after enrichment in a nuclear reactor. For a bomb, the oxide would have to be purified and made into a gas.


Herald feature: Iraq