US in huff at UN clamp on Iraqi arms papers

BAGHDAD - The United States is angry at being denied full access to Iraq's weapons declaration, leading White House officials to complain that the UN has "blind-sided" them.

The UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, decided to provide only what has been described as a "sanitised version" of the 12,000-plus page document to 15 members of the United Nations Security Council.

"We want that stuff and not after Blix gets it," said a White House source. "We want the whole thing."

The United States is anxious to compare the declaration - in which it says there is no evidence of banned weapons - to US intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The Security Council decided on Saturday to delay distributing the Iraqi documents to its member states until UN arms inspectors could review them, an official said.

Washington did expect to receive copies "fairly soon". He did acknowledge that the Security Council decision had created some confusion.

Iraq said there were more than 12,000 pages - 1334 on the area of Iraq's biological activities, 1823 on chemical activity and 6887 on missiles. There was also material involving the nation's nuclear activity.

Iraq has effectively thrown down a challenge to the US, announcing that it had no weapons of mass destruction a day ahead of the deadline set by the Security Council.

The Iraqi official in charge of the declaration, General Hasam Amin, said the mass of material would "answer all the questions which have been addressed during the last months and years".

But he added: "I reiterate here Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction."

The US insists it has intelligence that will show Baghdad is lying. Once the report is analysed, any evidence that it has concealed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or hidden medium- or long-range missiles, could trigger the war many senior members of the Bush Administration have been seeking.

Diplomatic sources say Washington does not want to show its intelligence on Iraq to all the UN weapons inspectors, only the ones it trusts - a stance which could set off a row with the UN.

But if the US gets its way, it is possible that "surprise" inspections could be carried out in Iraq before the end of the month, designed to trigger war within weeks.

In his weekly radio address to the US public, taped before Iraq's report was handed over, US President George W. Bush raised pre-emptive suspicions that the information would pass muster. In the past, he said, President Saddam Hussein admitted to "a massive biological weapons programme" only after being confronted with evidence.

"Thus far we are not seeing the fundamental shift in practice and attitude that the world is demanding," said Mr Bush.

General Amin retorted for Iraq: "I think if the United States has the minimum level of fairness and braveness, it should accept the report and say this is the truth."

Saddam, meanwhile, opened a surprising new front in the propaganda war, issuing an open letter to the Kuwaiti people in which he apologised for his 1990-1991 occupation and urged them to struggle against foreign armies.

"We apologise to God for doing anything that angers Him," said the letter, read on state television.

"If that had happened in the past, and we don't know about it, but we were considered responsible for it, on this basis we apologise to you."

But he also assailed Kuwait's leaders, saying they were working with foreigners to attack Iraq.

About the same time as the broadcast, Government vehicles bearing boxes holding the arms documents entered the UN compound in Baghdad and officials unloaded the material to hand over to UN officials.

Once the material reaches New York and Geneva, the reports will take experts weeks to analyse and arms inspectors months to verify inside Iraq.

- INDEPENDENT, AGENCIES


Herald feature: Iraq