12 January 2004	Monday	19 Ziqa'ad 1424

BAGHDAD, Jan 11: British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested on Sunday that Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq as unrest continued in the British-run southern part of the country.

"In a land mass twice the size of the UK it may well not be surprising you don't find where this stuff is hidden", Blair told BBC television.

"You can't be definitive at the moment about what has happened." Asked if he had been wrong in highlighting the threat of weapons of mass destruction, whose pursuit by Saddam was cited as a main justification for the US-led war launched last March, Blair replied: "You can't say that at this point in time.

"What you can say is that we received that intelligence about Saddam's programmes and about his weapons, that we acted on that. "But I don't know is the answer."

A poll published on Sunday showed that half of British voters believe Blair lied over the outing of David Kelly, the ministry of defence expert on Iraqi weapons who killed himself last year.

The poll was released as Blair awaits publication of a report by senior judge Brian Hutton after he oversaw an inquiry late last year into Kelly's death.

Blair indicated to parliament last Wednesday that he would quit if it was proven that he lied over Kelly. Kelly, 59, was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18 not long after he was exposed as being behind allegations that the prime minister's office "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction to rally support for the war.

Half of Britons agreed with the statement that Blair lied in saying he did not authorize the leaking of Kelly's name, according to the online YouGov poll published in The Mail on Sunday newspaper.

Meanwhile, a top US commander has said possible blister agents were found in mortar shells buried in the south, in what could be the first chemical weapons discovered since coalition forces invaded Iraq.

The military said tests were being carried out to determine whether a mysterious substance leaking from a cache of mortar shells is a chemical agent such as a blister gas.-AFP