December 15, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 10, 1423

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BAGHDAD, Dec 14: UN arms inspectors swooped on a record 11 sites in Iraq on Saturday after Baghdad was told to provide a list of scientists involved in its weapons programmes within two weeks.

The probes carried out by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) covered nuclear, missile, chemical and biological facilities, an Iraqi official said.

Iraq reported no incident by midday in any of the inspections.

One UNMOVIC team returned to a medical laboratory it could not visit on Friday because the keys could not be found.

On their first visit on Friday to the Communicable Diseases Control Centre the key holder could not be located, so the inspectors sealed several locked rooms in order to ensure non-interference.

Their search was expected to focus on the biological and chemical capability of the vast facility located in central Baghdad’s Andalus Square that Iraq declared to the United Nations last October 1.

Inspectors used the hotline to call Iraq’s top liaison officer with the United Nations, General Hossam Mohammed Amin, before sealing the offices.

It was the first hitch for UN weapons inspections since they resumed in Iraq on November 27, after a four-year absence.

Under UN Security Council resolutions 687, which defines the terms of the 1991 Gulf war ceasefire, Iraq has the obligation to declare and place under UN supervision equipment that could be of dual civilian and military use, in addition to dismantling its unconventional weapons and long-range missiles.

Iraq says it no such arsenal anymore and challenged the United States to prove that its declaration on weapons, handed over to the United Nations on December 8, contained gaping holes as US official claim.

The United Nations, meanwhile, announced that it had given Iraq until the end of the month to provide a complete list of scientists involved in its banned arms programmes, although UN officials made clear they remained reluctant to use powers to whisk them or their families abroad.

Chief arms inspector Hans Blix wrote to Iraqi presidential advisor Amir al-Saadi on Thursday formally requesting the complete list of Iraqi weapons scientists demanded by last month’s Security Council resolution, which relaunched the disarmament process.

UN spokesman Ewan Buchanan told reporters in New York that Blix had given Iraq until the end of the month.

Amin had told a news conference in Baghdad on Thursday that Iraq was already drawing up the list and was waiting for the written request from the United Nations.

Washington has been pressing the UN inspectors to use new powers to spirit Iraq scientists and their families abroad to allow them to speak out about banned weapons programmes without any possibility of intimidation by Baghdad.

But UN officials have so far strongly resisted the US pressure. “We are not going to abduct anybody, and we’re not serving as a defection agency,” Blix said last week.

UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which strengthened the inspections regime, gave the inspectors the right to interview Iraqi officials and scientists privately, inside or outside Iraq.

Almost half of the inspections carried out on Saturday involved facilities linked to Iraq’s missiles programmes around Baghdad, according to the Iraqi official.

The inspectors also went back for the sixth time to the vast Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, 20 kilometres to the south of Baghdad.

This site was the heart of the Iraqi nuclear programme until it was dismantled under IAEA supervision between 1991 and 1998.

UNMOVIC and IAEA beefed up their contingent this week twice, with new groups arriving on Tuesday and on Thursday. There are currently 98 inspectors, 71 from UNMOVIC and 27 from the IAEA.—AFP