BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Dec 20: The chief UN weapons inspector accused the US and Britain on Friday of not sharing intelligence on Iraq’s alleged doomsday weapons, hours after Washington said Baghdad was in “material breach” of a security council resolution.

Bolstered by reports from UN arms inspectors, US Secretary of State Colin Powell has made clear that time is running out for a peaceful solution.

At the same time the Pentagon escalated plans to move more US troops into the Gulf region.

Bush administration officials indicated the next milestone date would be Jan 27, when the UN weapons inspectors are scheduled to make their first substantial assessment to the security council. They said Bush could make a decision around that time to attack Iraq.

Addressing the UN on Thursday, Hans Blix said the 12,000-page Iraqi arms declaration mainly repeated old reports and revealed little new data.

On Friday, he turned on two of Iraq’s fiercest critics, saying: “If the UK and the US are convinced and they say they have evidence, well then one would expect that they would be able to tell us where is this stuff.”

Asked if he was getting all the cooperation he wanted from western intelligence, he told BBC radio: “Not yet. We get some but we don’t get all we need.

“The most important thing that governments like the UK or the US could give us would be to tell us of sites where they are convinced that they keep some weapons of mass destruction. This is what we want to have,” he said.—Reuters