BAGHDAD, Dec 1: Serious doubts crept up over the surprise nature of new arms inspections in Iraq when a UN spokesman admitted the head of a suspected weapons site had been given advance warning of the visit by the UN experts to his facility on Saturday.

“He was informed the day before (Friday) that the team was coming to remove an air sampler and install a new one,” Hiro Ueki said shortly after denying at a press briefing that the UN had tipped off the Iraqis.

“That is all (there is) to it,” the spokesman added, in an apparent bid to quash a possible controversy about whether UN inspections of suspected weapons were really on no-notice basis.

Reporters had pressed Ueki earlier about remarks by an Iraqi official, Hussein Hammudeh, who told journalists he had prior notice of a visit to his facility by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts.

Ueki had told the press briefing that “the inspectors arrive unannounced” and that the UN does “not notify Iraqis” of planned visits.

But he added that it was not surprising if officials at specific sites expected visits since such sites had been marked for inspection by the former UN experts who pulled out of the country in 1998.

Later to explain his apparent flip-flop, Ueki issued a statement elaborating on what he had said. He defended the advance notice given to Iraq as purely a matter of logistics, but added the UN had also given prior notice to a second inspection site.

“Um al-Maarik Company, which the IAEA team visited today, 30 November, was notified by the IAEA team in advance that two of their technicians would review the status of the remaining video surveillance,” he said.

“Al-Qa Qaa Company, which the IAEA team visited, was also requested on Thursday afternoon to provide assistance to facilitate removal of sampler,” Ueki added.

“This type of advance notification is sometimes given to facilitate their work on monitoring equipment. It happened to the above two cases.

“Except for these types of cases, our inspection teams do not provide advance warning to the Iraqi side, as we have emphasized time and again.”

But the UN’s revelation could pose fresh trouble for the inspectors, who have come under criticism from conservatives in Washington who believe the UN team might be too soft on Iraq and allow the government to hide its suspected programme for weapons of mass destruction.

No evidence: UN inspectors combing Iraq for weapons of mass destruction have yet to find any incriminating evidence on nuclear arms, but are “far from reaching a conclusion”, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday.

Asked in an interview with BBC television if he had found anything incriminating in the nuclear area, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei answered: “No.”

ElBaradei, speaking from Vienna where the agency is based and after recently returning from Iraq, said inspections were going well and Iraqi leader President Saddam Hussein was cooperating, but it was still early days.

“We are off to a good start but we are far from being able to reach a conclusion,” ElBaradei said, adding that inspectors would like to take their time completing their work.

“We are not keen to rush to a conclusion...I hope the world will bear with us,” he said.

Under a U.N. resolution, Saddam must give up any weapons of mass destruction or face “serious consequences” and he must give the U.N. inspection team, led by Hans Blix, unfettered access to all sites. The inspections began on Nov 27.

Besides searching for nuclear weapons, the inspectors are looking for chemical and biological arms. Iraq denies it has such weapons of mass destruction and has pledged full cooperation with inspectors.

Blix told Spain’s El Pais newspaper on Sunday: “There have been no impediments. We didn’t expect any. That is pleasing.”

Speaking to the paper in New York, he added: “The inspectors have taken samples, but we are not going to draw conclusions for now. The fact that these sites were empty does not mean they have not hidden material in other installations.”

ElBaradei said it would ultimately be up to the inspectors to decide the veracity of any statement by Saddam on weapons. Saddam must give a full statement of his weapons programme to the United Nations by Dec 8.

“At the end of the day, we are the ones who have to do the inspection and discover if there are discrepancies,” ElBaradei said, although he added that the weapons team would also consult U.N. member states on Saddam’s declaration.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel for Iraq if it cooperates fully,” he said.—AFP/ Reuters