Iraq actively cooperating in past month - Blix

UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday Iraq had been proactive recently in helping inspectors but he would not want to extend inspections on that basis because Baghdad's past track record had not been good.

Blix also told a news conference that all of Iraq's biological weapons had not been accounted for. While it was clear Iraq had dug up more biological arms recently, "It doesn't mean you can say that all biological weapons are accounted for. No, we are not there yet," he said.

Asked whether he would ask for four more months of inspections in Iraq on the basis of the current level of cooperation, he responded:

"They have been very active, I would say, and even proactive in the last month or so, but in the past the track record was not so good and I would not want to suggest that I am confident that this will happen. I hope it will happen," he told reporters.

"I would not want to make a request that would intimate this assumption," he said.