LONDON, Dec 23: Saddam Hussein almost certainly destroyed his weapons of mass destruction after the invasion of 1991, retired chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix told the BBC on Tuesday.

“I think that the vast majority of people are feeling that there is very little likelihood that they had anything, and the biggest chance is that they destroyed them in 1991,” he said.

Mr Blix was asked about reports that David Kay, the head of Washington’s weapons search group, was about to step down. He responded: “Certainly, it is an indication that the U.S. government is giving much higher priority to the search for terrorists than the search for weapons ... they might even have given up on the weapons.”

The retired Swedish diplomat welcomed Libya’s decision to end its WMD programmes under UN supervision as “very positive and welcome”, adding that Iraq could have been contained in the same way.

Asked if Libya’s decision was the direct consequence of a US military threat, Mr Blix replied: “No, I think that’s going a bit far.”

“You could just as well say that the example shows that perhaps Iraq could have been handled also with continuous containment,” Mr Blix said..

Regarding Syria’s WMD programmes, Mr Blix said the country was “nowhere on the nuclear side”. Syria could have some biological capability and was “very likely” to have a chemical capability, he added.

“Pressure, including military pressure, is important but does not necessarily mean that one should go to war,” Mr Blix commented. —AFP