BAGHDAD, March 16: Iraq has given UN arms inspectors pictures and videotapes of mobile laboratories it says are for strictly for civilian purposes, hitting back at US and British charges that they are used to produce biological agents, a UN spokesman said Sunday.

“The Iraqis handed us photos and videos of mobile laboratories which they say are used for purposes not linked to weapons of mass destruction,” Ueki said.

The United States and Britain accuse Iraq of developing banned biological agents in the laboratories on wheels, a charge Baghdad has firmly denied.

Iraq has acknowledged importing a mobile laboratory in 2002 from Britain that Baghdad said is used by the commerce ministry to test food safety.

This laboratory was mentioned by Baghdad in its lengthy declaration to the United Nations on its weapons programmes December 7.

Also destroyed under UN supervision since the beginning of the month have been 42 combat warheads, two launchers, five engines, 22 tail-fin sections and other rocket components, including their guidance and control systems.

Their destruction has been seen as one of the most tangible signs of Iraqi cooperation with UN weapons inspectors since their return to the country in November.

VX FILE CLOSED: Iraq considers the file of the deadly VX agents “closed” after sending a second set of documents on the chemical agents it says it destroyed 12 years ago, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.