BAQUBAH, May 6: US troops in Iraq say finding Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is not yet a top priority despite mounting pressure on Washington to justify the invasion with hard evidence.

Officials with the Fourth Infantry Division in northern Iraq said security and force protection were still their main focus as ground troops fanned out and as work on a new government began in Baghdad.

“The NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) operations are being looked at as more important than (in other wars) but they’re not the main priority, which is establishing security,” said Captain Bobbie Jackson, chemicals officer for the division’s 2nd Brigade.

“Once all the pockets of resistance are cleared up I think the search will intensify.”

In a major coup for US investigators, an official said on Monday top Iraqi scientist Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, involved in Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program, had been taken into custody.

Described as a “weapons of mass destruction scientist,” she was number 53 on the US list of wanted Iraqi officials.

The US and British governments have consistently said evidence from such scientists could be more valuable than inspections in the search for the truth about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programme.

“Assembling an accurate picture of Saddam’s programmes will take time,” pleaded Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last week.

“Until we are able to question the scientists and experts who worked on these programmes — and the UN has a list of 5,000 names — progress will inevitably be slow.”

The United States and Britain used accusations of a hidden weapons of mass destruction program as the primary justification for invading Iraq. But so far no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been officially reported.

Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, has suggested sending back UN inspectors to lend credibility to the US-led search.

The White House, however, has said it is not yet time to discuss the return of UN inspectors and has instead set up its own 1,000-strong survey team to scour the country.

But as troops on the ground continue to test suspected sights without success, Washington is coming under growing pressure to prove its allegations.—AFP