Blix says Iraq falls short of full cooperation

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday Iraq still had not made a "fundamental decision" to disarm, despite a recent handover of documents his experts welcomed.

Blix, who is readying another report to the UN Security Council this week, told reporters he thought Iraq had stepped up its efforts to release documents and other data as required by United Nations inspectors.

But he said, in answers to reporters' questions, "Full cooperation or a breakthrough? No, I don't think you can say that. We have a very long list of disarmament issues and it will require a big effort in order to clarify all of those."

"I do not think I can say there is evidence of a fundamental decision (to disarm) but there is some evidence of some increased activity," he said. "There is certainly more activity now."

Diplomats said, however, they did not expect Blix's written report to contain such precise language and thereby give ammunition to the United States and Britain, who are moving towards war, and their opponents, France, Germany and Russia, who want inspections to continue.

"It will be glass half-empty, glass half-full," said one envoy, who had seen a draft of the report, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The inspectors have been charged with investigating Iraq's claim that it has eliminated all its weapons of mass destruction. Washington dismisses Iraqi statements as lies and is preparing for a possible invasion on grounds Baghdad has failed to comply with UN demands.

The diplomats also said they expected Iraq to begin destroying its al-Samoud 2 missiles by Saturday as Blix has ordered, a demand supported by all Security Council members.

Blix too seemed to hold out hope, saying "These things are deployed, a lot of them are deployed out in the field and it is quite an effort to have it destroyed."

However, Blix has described as "positive" six letters sent to him by Iraq over the past few days that offered documents relating to weapons of mass destruction that Baghdad said it disposed of in 1991.

One letter said Iraq had found an R-400 bomb containing an unidentified liquid at a site where biological weapons had been destroyed. He said yesterday this liquid "may be biological depending on the markings on the bomb."

After denying in 1991 that it had any biological warfare program, Iraq admitted in 1995 it had produced 155 R-400 bombs that were filled with biological agents.

On Wednesday, UN weapons inspectors returned to the Al-Aziziyah range, where excavations of R-400 aerial bombs were under way, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Iraq had said these bombs, filled with biological agents had been unilaterally destroyed in 1991 but the inspectors sought proof of this.

The Security Council meets on Thursday behind closed doors to discuss a draft resolution, sponsored by Britain, the United States and Spain, that lays the groundwork for war by declaring Iraq had "failed" to meet UN disarmament demands. Bulgaria supports this position.

Opposing them are France and Germany, which distributed proposals to intensify inspections and continue them for at least four more months. These proposals are backed by China as well as Syria. But they oppose another resolution.

Mexico, a council member, showed some signs of moving towards the US position.

But diplomats said Mexico and others were also toying with a proposal from Canada, that would give Iraq a series of deadlines to disarm, culminating on March 28. The council would then decide on military action if Baghdad failed to fulfill them.

In Mulege, Mexico, late on Tuesday, President Vicente Fox spoke of a "modified version" of the US resolution.

"If this proposal is made with good intention and improvements to it are accepted, then surely it will bring us toward a good solution to this issue," he said.

No vote on the resolution is expected until the second week of March, indicating no invasion will take place before then.

Blix addresses the council on March 7.

A senior Bush Administration official said it was unlikely Russia would veto the US-British-Spanish draft despite Moscow's repeated statements that it opposes war. Russia as well as France and China have not said if they would veto the resolution or abstain.

In order to get the nine minimum votes needed for adoption, all sides are concentrating on Mexico, Chile, Pakistan, Cameroon, Guinea and Angola, all of whom had supported the French position but are now undecided.