Iraq says US will try interfering with inspections

Iraq said yesterday the United States was bent on interfering in UN weapons inspections to create a pretext for unleashing a new Gulf war despite a smooth start to the arms checks.

"The United States is the only one which interprets the (Security Council) resolution in a way that suits its hostile intentions against Iraq and the Arab nation," said al-Thawra newspaper, organ of Iraq's ruling Baath Party.

"Thus it will continue to make threats and poke its nose into the work of the inspectors and will fabricate any event or issue to confuse their work or obstruct it, especially when the inspectors and the world realise that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction."

Iraq has pledged full cooperation with the inspectors, who returned to Iraq this week to search for chemical, biological and nuclear arms under a tough UN resolution that gives Baghdad one last chance to disarm.

Yesterday the Iraqi foreign ministry poured scorn on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's recently published dossier listing Iraq's alleged possession of banned arnms, saying the UN inspectors had visited two of the named sites and found nothing.

But yesterday's British newspapers, citing unidentified intelligence sources, said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had ordered hundreds of his staff to hide components of weapons of mass destruction in their homes to avoid detection.

The United States accuses Iraq of developing the banned weapons of mass destruction and has threatened military action to topple Saddam.

Iraq denies the charge, insisting all its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons have already been destroyed.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said the first two days of the inspectors' work were unhindered.

"I think it's going smoothly and we have no reason to complain," ElBaradei told reporters in Vienna yesterday.

"We have been able to do what we set out to do in the first days and we hope that this will continue to be the pattern."

But al-Thawra said Iraqi cooperation did not matter to US President George W. Bush.

"No one in the Bush administration will give a fig for optimism expressed by many countries after the start of the inspection process in Iraq," it said.

"The reason is that Washington has become a hostage of its arrogance, ambitions and Zionists' pressure."

The 17 inspectors stayed at their headquarters in Baghdad on the Muslim weekend and were evaluating two days of work since they resumed inspections on Wednesday after a four-year gap, UN sources said. All Iraqi facilities close yesterdays.

In London, The Times and the Independent dailies, citing unnamed British government sources and intelligence reports, said Saddam had ordered scientists, civil servants and even farmers to hide key weapons components and chemicals - or face severe penalties if they refuse.

In the mid-1990s UN inspectors had found weapons-related evidence concealed in private and public buildings. They found missile parts in a police station, chemical papers in a chicken farm and other evidence under the garage floor on a private ranch of a senior army officer.

The Times said Blair and Bush took the concealment claims so seriously that they were considering making personal appeals to Iraqi officials to tell the inspectors what was going on.

A spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office told Reuters he would not comment on speculation of an appeal by the leaders.

"Our support for the weapons inspection teams and the work they are doing and the need for Iraqi cooperation and compliance is already well known," he said.

When asked if Blair was aware of any claims that Saddam was ordering staff to conceal weapons at home, he said: "We have nothing to add at this stage to the information in the dossier we published a few months ago chronicling past experiences."

That 50-page dossier, produced by Blair in September to boost public support for action against Iraq, said Saddam was building up stocks of chemical and biological weapons and could launch an attack with 45 minutes notice.

But the Iraqi foreign ministry said that on Thursday the inspectors had visited two of the sites cited in the dossier - a defunct vaccine lab and Nasr heavy machinary factory - where banned weapons were allegedly being developed.

"The results reached by the inspectors reveals Tony Blair's lies and his mistaken accusations against Iraq," it said in a statement.

The inspectors will get electronic equipment later this week to make sure that their operations centre in Baghdad has not been bugged during their four-year absence.

In London, an Iraqi opposition figure said six Iraqi opposition groups recognised by Washington would hold a conference in the British capital next month to prepare for taking power if Saddam was removed.

"We will gather on December 13-15 if the British government meets our visa requirements. We are in the process of agreeing on the final agenda and list of participants," Nabil al-Mousawi, a member of the organising committee, told Reuters.