UNITED NATIONS, March 7: Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council on Friday that Iraq was now providing inspectors with proactive cooperation.

Delivering his report at a divided Security Council, Mr Blix said “until today 34 Al-Samoud 2 missiles, including four training missiles, two combat warheads, one launcher and five engines, have been destroyed under UNMOVIC supervision”.

Mr Blix said Iraq might have stopped destroying its Al-Samoud 2 missiles since March 1 and expressed the hope that “this is a temporary break.”

Diplomats here expressed fears that President Saddam Hussein may have stopped destruction of his weapons following a speech by US President George Bush on Thursday night in which he indicated that “war was imminent” and Iraq had a short time-frame for compliance.

Mr Blix said: “The destruction undertaken constitutes a substantial measure of disarmament. We are not watching the destruction of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed.”

He welcomed recent Iraqi cooperation, which, he said, “can be seen as active, or even proactive.”

The chief inspector, whose teams are responsible for the hunt for biological, chemical and missile programmes, said Iraq had recently provided additional documentation on anthrax and the VX nerve agent. “Many have been found to restate what Iraq has already declared.”

He said that even with continued proactive cooperation from Iraq, it will take some time to ensure that Iraq has carried out remaining disarmament tasks which he intends to report to the Security Council later this month.

“It will not take years, nor weeks, but months,” he said, stressing that even after this is completed, Iraq should be subject to ongoing inspections and monitoring of its facilities.

In a reference to US assertions, Mr Blix said inspectors had been unable to verify some claims about hidden Iraqi weapons and he had asked again for more information about suspect sites.

Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in his speech took a swipe at US intelligence, saying his analysis now definitively showed that suspect aluminium tubes were not destined for equipment that could be used to refine uranium for nuclear weapons use.

“Extensive field investigation and document analysis have failed to uncover any evidence that Iraq intended to use these 81mm tubes for any project other than the reverse engineering of rockets,” Mr ElBaradei said.

He also told the Security Council that the International Atomic Energy Agency found no evidence to support reports that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.

“Based on thorough analysis, the IAEA has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts, that documents which formed the basis for the reports of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger are, in fact, not authentic,” he said. “We have therefore concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded.”

AFP adds: Mr Blix said inspectors had found no evidence of underground chemical or biological production or storage facilities in Iraq.

Acting on reports, denied by Iraq, that proscribed activities were being conducted at underground sites, Mr Blix told the Security Council that inspections — using ground penetrating radar equipment — had been carried out at a series of sites.

“No underground facilities for chemical or biological production or storage were found so far,” he reported.

He also said that a “significant” Iraqi effort was under way to clarify a major source of uncertainty as to the quantities of biological and chemical weapons, which were unilaterally destroyed in 1991.

A part of that effort concerned a disposal site, which was deemed too dangerous

for full investigation in the past and is now being re-excavated. To date, Iraq has unearthed eight complete bombs comprising two liquid-filled intact R-400 bombs and six other complete bombs, Mr Blix said.

“In this, as in other matters, inspection work is moving on and may yield results,” he added.

MOBILE ACTIVITIES: Mr Blix said his teams had not found evidence to support US claims that Iraq was hiding banned arms in mobile laboratories.