Iraq destroyed weapons 10 years ago, claims Blix

FORMER UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix believes that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, but kept up the appearance that it had them to deter a military attack.

Mr Blix said it was unlikely the US and British teams now searching for weapons in Iraq would find more than some "documents of interest".

"I'm certainly more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they maintained, destroyed all, almost, of what they had in the summer of 1991," Mr Blix told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The more time that has passed, the more I think it's unlikely that anything will be found."

Mr Blix indicated he thought the US-led coalition had backtracked on the issue of Iraq's weapons.

"In the beginning they talked about weapons concretely, and later on they talked about weapons programmes. Maybe they'll find some documents of interest," the weapons inspector said.

Mr Blix, who spent three years searching for Iraqi chemical, biological and ballistic missiles as head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said Iraq might have tried to fool the US into believing it had weapons of mass destruction over the years in order to deter attack.

"I mean, you can put up a sign on your door, 'Beware of the Dog,' without having a dog," Mr Blix said from his home in Sweden.