US getting tense over Blix's timing

Tensions over Iraq resurfaced in the United Nations Security Council yesterday when the United States pressed for agreement that the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, should ignore an old timetable for disarming the country that could slow down Washington's plans for war.

Arguments over the pace of the inspections broke out even as news came from Baghdad that inspectors had found 11 empty chemical warheads.

At issue is the status of the resolution adopted by the Security Council in December 1999, which created the inspections regime headed by Blix.

That text, resolution 1284, set down a calendar for inspections that could last at least a year.

On Wednesday, Condoleezza Rice, the US National Security Adviser, discreetly visited Blix in New York to suggest he take guidance solely from the much more recent resolution 1441, passed last November, giving Iraq one last chance to fall into line or face "serious consequences".

That would require the 15-member Security Council to declare Iraq in "material breach" of its disarmament obligations.

Part of the Security Council split is about the importance of January 27, the date Blix will present the 15 ambassadors with his first substantive report on how the resumed weapons inspections are going.

Washington is increasingly indicating that it considers that day to be the point from which war preparations should go into high gear. By contrast, other countries are playing down the significance of Blix's first report.

Blix intends to respect the parallel calendar for inspections and his cycle of reports as laid down in the earlier resolution 1284. This will entail him coming back to the Security Council at the end of March with a separate report detailing what disarmament tasks Iraq will have to complete in the months following.

America fears this new date will inevitably slow the momentum towards any agreement to authorise force.

"We do have some questions on whether March 27 is the right time to outline the key remaining disarmament tasks," US Ambassador John Negroponte told reporters at the United Nations.

UN weapons inspectors said they had found 11 undeclared but empty chemical warheads at an ammunition depot south of Baghdad, but the Iraqi Government insisted the munitions had already been reported to the UN.

The discovery of the empty warheads was announced hours after inspectors searched the homes of two Iraqi scientists in Baghdad.

One, a physicist, left his home with inspectors, but it was unclear if there was any connection between the home search and the discovery of the munitions.

UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said discovery of the 122mm warheads - and a 12th that requires further evaluation - was made at Ukhaydir ammunitions depot, 113km south of the capital.

Debate immediately began about whether the warheads constituted a material breach under resolution 1441.

In a hastily arranged news conference, Lieutenant General Hossam Mohammed Amin, chief Iraqi liaison officer to the inspection teams, expressed amazement at the inspectors' description of the 122mm weapons.

He said the warheads were part of short-range rockets imported in 1988 and mentioned in Iraq's December declaration to the UN. But Ueki insisted, "It was a discovery. They were not declared."

Generally, Iraqi chemical shells were modified to enable the insertion of deadly agents and to encapsulate them in the warhead. They could be easily identified as modified for chemical warfare.

European Union officials welcomed the UN announcement that they discovered warheads in Iraq as evidence that weapons inspectors were doing their job.

Speaking in Pennsylvania, President George W. Bush said his patience with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was running out.

"It's up to Saddam Hussein to do what the entire world has asked him to do," Bush said. "So far the evidence hasn't been very good that he is disarming. And time is running out."

German Defence Minister Peter Struck said yesterday he could not imagine Germany voting in favour of a war against Iraq at the Security Council, where it holds a seat.

"A final decision can only be taken when it is clear what the vote concerns, but a yes is no longer conceivable."

- INDEPENDENT, AGENCIES

Herald feature: Iraq