Reporters visit nuclear site construction

IRAQ insisted yesterday that construction at a nuclear site was for peaceful research, continuing a campaign to prove its enemies are lying to build a case for military action against Saddam Hussein.

Reporters were escorted to the site, al-Twaitha, 25 miles south of Baghdad. The site was destroyed twice, first by the Israelis in 1981 and then by the allies during the 1991 Gulf War, according to Iraqi officials.

It was the fifth such visit in four weeks. Iraqi authorities have taken reporters to what were described as a livestock vaccination laboratory, a complex of food warehouses, an insecticide plant and a fertiliser factory.

Critics say experts in chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes given unfettered access should be conducting the inspections.

The United States, with British support, accuses Saddam of possessing weapons of mass destruction and harbouring terrorism.

The head of a UN atomic weapons team said last week that satellite photos show new construction at several sites linked to Saddam's past nuclear efforts.

French physicist Jacques Baute did not identify the sites, but Iraqi officials said yesterday at least one was al-Twaitha. "Blair and the British media have waged in the recent days a new media campaign saying that Iraq has reactivated and they have shown satellite photos saying that there are four facilities in this site conducting activities in the nuclear field," said Saeed Al-Moussawi, a foreign ministry official who escorted journalists to al-Twaitha. "These claims are full distortion of facts about these four buildings and there functions." Al-Moussawi claimed that the four new buildings were used for environmental, medical and agricultural research and "they are purely dedicated for peaceful purposes."

The buildings were surrounded by rubble. Inside, workers operated lathes. Bags of mushrooms said to be used in agricultural research were scattered on the floor. Samples of what was described as kidney disease medicine were kept in a laboratory.

It was not clear when the four buildings were constructed. A fifth that also looked new but was not shown to the reporters appeared to be a warehouse.

Meanwhile,US and British war planes bombed an Iraqi air defence command-and-control site southeast of Baghdad yesterday, the fourth attack in the southern no-fly zone this month.

The allied attack near Al Amarah, 170 miles southeast of the capital, was "in response to recent Iraqi hostile acts" against aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones, said US Central Command. The RAF and USAF attacked two military sites in Iraq last week.

Pentagon officials say there is nothing unusual about the frequency of the raids there were eight last month but there is speculation that the US and Britain are trying to destroy Iraq's air defence capabilities in a preparation for an all-out attack.

Pentagon officials said yesterday's attack came after Iraqi forces fired on a US-British patrol.

Coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to hit the air defence command and control facility, said US Central Command.

The command called it "a self-defence measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition forces and their aircraft."