Israel tests missile

UN weapons inspectors flexed their muscles yesterday, combing a complex housing Iraq's own arms Monitoring Directorate and leaving two senior Iraqi officials trapped inside and fuming for hours.

In Israel, the armed forces test-fired an Arrow missile interceptor, preparing to defend the Jewish state against any attack by Iraq in the event of a US-led war in the Gulf.

Iraq fired 39 Scuds with conventional warheads at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, causing one death and extensive damage.

While the experts scoured sites in the sixth week of a hunt for banned weaponry, US allies in Europe and the Middle East kept up the quest for a peaceful solution to head off war.

In Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced plans to make a "pan-Arab and historic" speech to the Iraqi people at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) today to mark Army Day.

Parliament Speaker Saadoun Hammadi said Iraq would fight with "all available means" and inflict heavy casualties on any US-British forces attacking his country.

"The people of Iraq will defend courageously with high morale and all available means against any American-British aggression," Hammadi told the official Iraqi News Agency.

"The aggressive America and Britain will fail miserably and suffer great loss," he added.

A Sunday inspection, sprung on the compound housing Iraq's own arms Monitoring Directorate, provoked howls from IMD chief General Hussam Mohammed Amin and the visiting Iraqi UN Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri.

Iraqi officials said the inspectors were focused on the Al Basil Company at the complex but witnesses said UN inspectors closed the main gate and blocked the entrance to the complex.

For more than six hours, UN experts stopped people and cars inside the complex, filmed cars, and searched vehicles and personnel. (Reuters)

"They wanted to exercise their maximum intrusiveness, maximum hardness of implementation of resolution 1441," fumed Amin, clad in military fatigues.

Inspectors are enforcing the UN Security Council resolution, which orders Iraq to reveal any chemical, biological or nuclear programmes or long-range missile projects. Baghdad denies having such programmes or weapons.

US allies, fearing regional upheavals, are seeking ways to resolve the crisis and prevent a war to force Iraq to disarm.

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul was in Egypt on a Middle East tour to try to prevent a conflict but a Turkish newspaper said dozens of Turkish tanks were already in northern Iraq, where Kurds enjoy de facto autonomy from Baghdad.

Greece, current president of the 15-member European Union, called on EU countries to take a united stance on Iraq and urged them to work to avoid a war.

"The most important (development) at this time is for United Nations efforts to conclude in a positive result and to avoid a war," Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said in an interview with the Sunday Vima newspaper.

In Moscow, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov also said the United Nations must take the lead in the crisis.

"We will not regard any military action against Iraq as legitimate and justified should it begin without UN approval," he told reporters.

The Sunday Times newspaper in London said Britain will begin deploying troops to the Gulf on January 15, the first firm date for deployment by Washington's closest ally on the Iraq issue.

UN experts yesterday also searched other sites, including a graphite facility, a hospital and a university.

They have yet to disclose any evidence of banned weapons and must report their findings to the Security Council by January 27.