Iraq invites UN inspectors amid nuclear alarm

11.00am

BAGHDAD - UN nuclear inspectors are welcome to return an Iraqi minister said in response to concerns of an "apparent systematic dismantlement" of Saddam Hussein's once-vigorous nuclear program.

Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar was responding to an International Atomic Energy Agency report this week that neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once closely monitored by the agency.

"The locations that belong to the Science and Technology ministry are secure and under our control," Omar told Reuters.

He said nothing had gone missing since a looting spree after last year's US-led invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no banned weapons.

Omar said Tuwaitha, a vast compound south of Baghdad that included Iraq's main nuclear facility, was being turned into a science park.

"The IAEA came back one month ago, they inspected the plant and others and didn't say anything.

"We are transparent. We are happy for the IAEA or any other organization to come and inspect," he said, adding he had not seen the agency's report to the Security Council.

The IAEA report, released three weeks ahead of the US presidential election, could fuel criticism of the Iraq policies of the Bush administration, already under fire for its handling of an insurgency that has so far proved impossible to crush.

Meanwhile, a US photographer abducted by gunmen on Sunday has been freed, the picture agency representing him said.

Paul Taggart, 24, has been released and has spoken by telephone with his parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said Stephen Claypole, chief executive officer of the World Picture News agency in New York.

Claypole said Taggart, who had been in Iraq for about five months, was kidnapped by three masked gunmen on Sunday morning in Baghdad when his car was intercepted by what appeared to be a criminal gang.

On the military front, an overnight US air strike on the rebel-held city of Falluja targeted a restaurant which the military said was a meeting place for followers of America's top enemy in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The latest raid coincided with efforts to restore state authority in Falluja and elsewhere before January elections.

Witnesses said bombs flattened the popular Haji Hussein kebab house on Falluja's main street, killing two guards and reducing it to a pile of crushed concrete and twisted metal.

After sunset, US forces and insurgents clashed just east of Falluja, residents said. US air support was called in, with fighter planes firing on one neighborhood, they said. A doctor at a Falluja hospital, Haithan Rahim, said eight people were killed in the fighting. The US military had no information.

FOCUS ON ZARQAWI

The US military said it was a "precision strike" on a location where Zarqawi militants met to plot attacks.

"Zarqawi does not come here. Where is Zarqawi? We have not seen Zarqawi," yelled one Falluja resident after the US raid.

Zarqawi's group has claimed some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide bombings, as well as the beheadings of foreign hostages, including Briton Kenneth Bigley, who was killed on Thursday.

Bigley's body was dumped south of Baghdad the following day, insurgent sources said on Tuesday. The British embassy said it had still not recovered the Briton's remains.

Insurgents have sought to frighten US allies into pulling their troops and contractors out of Iraq.

Hungary's new prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, said on Tuesday his government would decide at the end of November or early December whether to keep Hungary's 300-strong transport battalion in Iraq beyond the end of the year.

South Korea is investigating a warning posted on an Arabic web site threatening attacks if Seoul does not pull its 3,600 troops out of Iraq in 14 days, an official said.

Three South Korean civilians have been killed in Iraq.

The US military believes Falluja is a main sanctuary for such militants and American officers have voiced skepticism that any political deal to pacify the town can dislodge them.

Falluja representatives met interim government officials on Tuesday in the latest of a series of talks to put Iraqi security forces back in control of the rebellious city.

Previous truce deals have failed to calm Falluja.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq