Iraq says it has no weapons of mass destruction

Iraq declared it had no weapons of mass destruction yesterday as it showed international journalists a massive dossier on its arms programmes due to be delivered to UN inspectors.

The dossier, which could spell the difference between war and peace, was shown to reporters at the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate in central Baghdad.

It was contained in 11,807 pages, 352 pages of supplements and CD-Roms with a total 529 megabytes of data, according to a sign at the Directorate headquarters.

The weapons declaration comes a month after a tough UN resolution gave Baghdad a chance to disarm or face possible US-led military action.

Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Directorate, told a news conference the documents would be handed to UN inspectors in the next few hours.

"We declared that Iraq is empty of weapons of mass destruction. I reiterate Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction," he said.

The declaration detailed "some activities that are dual-use" Amin said, referring to technology which has both peaceful and military applications.

"If the US has minimum levels of fairness and bravery it should accept the report."

US President George W. Bush said Washington would take some time to judge the declaration, but repeated warnings it would disarm Iraq by force if necessary.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said the weapons declaration "must be credible and accurate and complete, or the Iraqi dictator will have demonstrated to the world that once again he has chosen not to change his behaviour.

"Any act of delay or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance, and he has rejected the path of peace."

The main glass door to the Directorate headquarters was shattered as around 100 foreign journalists surged into the building to see the declaration.

The UN resolution had given Baghdad a Sunday deadline to provide a full account of any past and current programmes involving biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

The documents, seen by a Reuters journalist, were in about two dozen files on a table next to golden CD-Roms. Some were entitled "Currently Accurate, Full and Complete Declaration".

Most papers appeared to be in English with some in Arabic. Reporters were not shown the contents.

The United States alleges Baghdad has biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programmes in violation of UN agreements reached after the 1991 Gulf War when a coalition led by Washington forced Iraq out of Kuwait.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saddam should try to avert a second war on Iraq by giving up and leaving the country.

"Everyone would prefer that he just leave tomorrow," he told Lebanese TV station LBC according to an English transcript. "War is your last choice."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the United States' staunchest ally on Iraq, said he remained sceptical Saddam was genuinely cooperating with UN weapons inspectors.

"Let us hope that it's a true and frank account," Blair wrote in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat yesterday.

"You'll forgive me if, knowing all that I do about Saddam's past record, I remain sceptical," he said.

The Iraqi declaration will be vetted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) in New York.

UN Security Council members have decided to postpone its release for as much as a week to allow experts to screen it for any military secrets that might help outsiders develop their own doomsday weapons.

IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei said Baghdad had given no sign of what was in the report.