BAGHDAD, Nov 29: The United Nations will be shipping helicopters to Iraq in the coming days to extend the range of weapons inspections, which have so far been confined to the Baghdad region, UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said Friday.

“The helicopters will be arriving soon. They will not be coming all at the same time but one will be here fairly quickly,” Ueki told AFP, hinting that the first aircraft was likely to arrive in parts over the weekend.

“They will be more than a few and they will be based at al-Rasheed airbase,” south of the capital.

The helicopters will be used to transport arms experts to remote areas and to provide surveillance of suspect sites while they are being inspected to ensure that there is no movement in or out.

Ueki confirmed that the UN weapons experts would not be making a third day of field inspections on Friday.

“They are consolidating their work today and they are preparing the work of next week,” he said. Ueki said the number of inspectors operating in Iraq would remain essentially unchanged until Dec 8, Baghdad’s deadline under UN Security Council Resolution 1441 to fully declare its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.—AFP