Row erupts as US experts plough through dossier

WASHINGTON - United States officials were pressing ahead with their analysis of a 12,000-page dossier detailing Baghdad's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes last night as a row erupted over access to the declaration.

The US received an early unedited copy of the Iraqi weapons declaration after a deal was struck to override a United Nations Security Council decision to keep the report under wraps.

The huge document appeared to contain the names of foreign arms suppliers in a long declaration on Iraq's past weapons programmes - something that could prove embarrassing for the countries involved, including members of the Security Council.

The council had wanted to delay release of the Iraqi document until it had been screened for technical secrets on making nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, for fear that the information might fall into the wrong hands.

A surprise deal was reached on Sunday to hand the voluminous document to the US, which is making copies for the other permanent Security Council members. Britain and France have received copies and Washington last night delivered copies to Russia and China in New York.

Syria - a non-permanent Council member - protested against the decision to limit early access to the declaration. "It's in contradiction to ... every kind of logic in the Security Council," said Syria's ambassador to the UN, Mikhail Wehbe.

The BBC reported that several other members of the Council are upset at the extent to which the US took charge of handing out copies to the others and editing the versions to be given to the non-nuclear powers.

The BBC said that American diplomats pressed Colombia, which holds the Security Council's rotating presidency for December, to allow the US to take charge of the copying process.

In the index, Iraq listed procurements for its nuclear programmes as well as imported chemical precursors and foreign technical help for its chemical weapons programmes.

"There are lots of pages devoted to procurement information," said Gary Milholling, director of the Washington-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, commenting on the dossier's information on suppliers.

"If they have listed all their suppliers, that is quite important and should be made public. If you expose this network, it means it is harder for them to continue."

In the past such information has been submitted but not disclosed by UN weapons inspection units. Companies around the world that co-operated with the UN did so on condition they would not be publicly identified.

It is not known whether the US or other council members might try to suppress this part of the Iraqi report, but after distribution to all the Security Council's 15 member states, there is a good chance it will leak to the media.

UN experts in New York and Vienna pored over the report yesterday, trying to judge whether it would satisfy UN demands for disarmament, set out in resolution 1441, and avert war with the US.

US experts are expected to search for discrepancies between Iraq's disclosures and US intelligence data.

American officials say they have evidence of continuing Iraqi illegal weapons and insist Washington will take military action if necessary to rid Iraq of them.

Iraq says the declaration shows it has no weapons of mass destruction - an assertion that puts it on a collision course with the US.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it could take experts weeks to scour the documents and urged patience.

"I think the thing to do is to not prejudge it, be patient and expect that it will take days and weeks probably to go over, and come to some judgments about it," he said.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it would be "naive" to think that President Saddam Hussein was likely to comply with the UN demands.

The "implication" of resolution 1441 was that "if there is a breach and Saddam doesn't comply, then we are ready to take action", he told the Financial Times.

In Washington, a group of Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill challenged the Bush Administration to prove its assertions by releasing intelligence reports.

"If the Administration has evidence that counters the Iraqi disclosures, they should provide such evidence to the United Nations," said Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat. "The Administration does not do well if it bypasses the United Nations and prepares to engage in war no matter what the UN findings."

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage flew into South Korea yesterday for talks with top officials as angry protesters rallied to oppose his visit and American pressure on Iraq. The visit coincides with anger over a June accident in which two girls were crushed by a US Army vehicle.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq