27 February 2004	Friday	06 Muharram 1425

BAGHDAD, Feb 26: Iraqi authorities will reopen an old nuclear site near Baghdad at the end of March for "peaceful scientific" research purposes, Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar said on Thursday.

"We are working to transform al-Tuwaitha into a peaceful scientific site to serve the Iraqis and to participate in research and studies on a global level," Omar said.

"Work is well underway and, at the end of March, we will unveil the first renovated buildings," he said. The minister estimated that the total cost of rebuilding the site, 20 kilometres south of Baghdad, would be about 30 million dollars. It would be carried out in two phases, but Omar was unable to say when the job would be completed.

The old site, which comprised more than 100 buildings and was once the hub of nuclear research under ousted president Saddam Hussein, was bombed in 1981 by the Israelis who suspected that Iraq was making an atomic bomb. UN weapons inspectors visited the site, which was then being used to produce pharmaceutical products, before the US-led invasion of Iraq. -AFP