US suspicious over boxes of white powder at chemical plant

US troops found thousands of boxes of suspicious white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare south of Baghdad.

But a senior US official familiar with initial testing said that the materials were believed to be explosives.

Col John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found yesterday at the Latifiyah industrial complex 25 miles south of Baghdad.

But the senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the material was under further study. The site is enormous and US troops are still investigating it for potential weapons of mass destruction, the official said.

Peabody said troops found thousands of 2-inch by 5-inch boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents, and 2-Pam chloride, which is used in combination with atropine in case of chemical attack.

The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. UN inspectors visited the plant at least a dozen times, including as recently as February 18.

The facility is part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant al-Qa Qaa. During the 1991 Gulf War, US jets bombed the plant.

Troops also discovered what they believe is a training centre for nuclear, chemical and biological warfare in Iraq's western desert, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said yesterday.

One bottle found at the site was labelled tabun a nerve agent that the US government says may have been used during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The soldiers found only a small amount of the chemical, indicating the site was meant for training, not storing or deploying chemical weapons, Brooks said.

Photos of the site showed shelves of brown bottles with yellow labels. Brooks said troops did not understand some of the labels and were collecting the bottles for examination.

In southern Iraq, British forces found 56 missiles and four launchers, removing a significant threat from Saddam Hussein's armoury, military officials said.

The Royal Fusiliers found the Astros short-range ballistic missiles near al-Zubayr, a British military source said.

Also near al-Zubayr, 42 Commando discovered chemicals and hollow shells at a fertiliser plant.

On April 1, Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan repeated Baghdad's position it had no weapons of mass destruction.

Referring to reports gas masks and other chemical gear were found elsewhere, he said the coalition might plant weapons of mass destruction to implicate Iraq.

"Once more I say Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction."