Iraq again denies it has weapons of mass destruction

Iraq said yesterday its planned declaration to the United Nations would cover biological, chemical, missile and nuclear technologies, but stressed again it had no weapons of mass destruction.

Baghdad's latest statement was another message of defiance to US President George W. Bush, who insists Iraq does possess weapons of mass destruction and has threatened war if necessary to disarm it.

Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in a blistering attack, accused UN inspectors hunting for banned weapons in Iraq of being US and Israeli spies.

"The inspectors have come to provide better circumstances and more precise information for a coming aggression," Ramadan said at a meeting with an Egyptian delegation in a Baghdad hotel. "This is not an accusation, because the inspectors, from day one, their foremost work was spying.

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz cooled any talk of imminent war however, saying Iraq's declaration to the UN would not in itself trigger a US decision on military action.

"I'm quite sure (Bush) is not going to make it simply on the basis of one single piece of information," Wolfowitz said in Brussels. "He's going to make it... also (in) close consultation, particularly with our allies but indeed with the international community."

Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, said in Baghdad: "The declaration will repeat that in Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction.

"It will be a huge declaration. Of course it contains new elements," he told a news conference.

Amin, who has already disclosed the dossier would be handed over on Saturday - a day before a UN deadline, said it would cover "biological, chemical and missile and nuclear activities" as well as "dual-use activities", a reference to technology with both civilian and military applications.

Washington was quick to dismiss Iraq's statement and demanded a more aggressive UN hunt in Iraq for arms of mass destruction.

"We believe... they continue to have weapons of mass destruction," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. He said previous Iraqi denials that it had arms of mass destruction were proved false by earlier UN inspections.

"We want to make certain that (UN inspections) are aggressive enough to be able to ascertain the facts in the face of an adversary who in the past did everything in his power to hide the facts," Fleischer said.

UN arms inspectors resumed inspections of sites in Iraq last week after leaving in 1998 complaining Iraqi authorities were obstructing them.

They searched Iraq's main nuclear research plant and a former chemical arms production centre yesterday, once again reporting cooperation from the Iraqis as they have done all through their week-long mission so far.

Analysts said Baghdad's statement that it would be handing over a huge dossier meant it was likely to be days before the UN, Washington and others could make any assessment. There will be copies in both Arabic and English.

At the United Nations, diplomats said the declaration was expected to be turned over to UN inspectors in Baghdad on Saturday night and flown to UN headquarters in New York.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, looking relaxed and chatting to former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, appeared on Iraqi television yesterday for the first time since UN inspectors returned to Iraq last month.

Saddam's rare absence from television screens, which had lasted for nearly three weeks, was not explained by the state media or officials. Usually it is rare for a day to go by without Saddam appearing on television at an official function.

Washington was joined by staunch ally Britain in keeping up pressure on Baghdad to come clean over its arms programmes.

Britain demanded that Saddam comply with a UN Security Council resolution passed on November 8 to disclose his biological, chemical or nuclear weapons programmes.

"I warn Saddam not to err in this test, because it would be the mistake of a lifetime," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told Gulf TV station al-Jazeera. British officials said the interview was targeted at Saddam's inner circle.

UN inspectors began a second week of searches, with a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) swooping on Iraq's main nuclear plant al-Tuweitha, 20 kilometres south of Baghdad. They spent five hours examining buildings.

It has housed several research reactors and included activities such as plutonium separation and waste processing, uranium metallurgy, neutron initiator development and work on a number of methods of uranium enrichment.

Tuweitha is the location of the Osirak reactor bombed by Israel in 1981. Several tonnes of uranium have been under seal by the IAEA at Tuweitha since 1998.

Inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) searched the sprawling Muthanna military site 75 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The desert site was the primary chemical arms research, development and production facility from 1983 to 1991, producing thousands of tons of precursors, nerve agents and mustard gas.

The site, which produced mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun and VX, was bombed heavily during the 1991 Gulf War.

On a visit to Turkey, a US ally neighbouring Iraq, Wolfowitz said earlier yesterday that Washington was ready to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in air bases that might be used in a war against Baghdad.

"Now it should be clearer than ever that Saddam Hussein is surrounded by the international community," he told reporters.

Muslim Turkey wants to avoid war in Iraq, fearing it will cause regional turmoil and damage its shattered economy. But the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has been at pains to shake off suspicions about its Islamist roots and show its commitment to its US allegiance.

The United States and Britain use Turkey's Incirlik air base to patrol a "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq, in force since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.