Iraq is not a threat, says Ritter

IRAQ is incapable of producing weapons of mass destruction and should prove it

Scott Ritter who has been a sharp critic of US policy on Iraq joined a long list of European and Arab countries who have urged Iraq to accept inspectors to defuse a crisis with the United States.

The United States accuses Iraq of stockpiling or trying to stockpile chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and has called for the Baghdad regime to be toppled possibly by force.

Iraq's co-operation on inspections would leave the United States "standing alone in regards to war threats on Iraq and this is the best way to prevent the war," Mr Ritter said in Baghdad.

"The truth is Iraq is not a threat to its neighbours and it is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone outside its borders," Mr Ritter said. "Military action against Iraq cannot be justified."

Iraq, while denying it has banned weapons, has offered only to continue dialogue with the United Nations about the return of inspectors. It has not responded to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's demand that inspectors be allowed to return unconditionally as a first step to further talks. Other members of the UN teams that investigated Iraq's weapons of mass destruction from 1991 to 1998 have said that Iraq probably possesses large stockpiles of nerve agents, mustard gas and anthrax.

They add that while the country does not have a nuclear bomb, it has the designs, equipment and expertise to build one quickly if it were able to get enough weapons-grade uranium or plutonium.

On Saturday, a US intelligence official said that Iraq has recently stepped up attempts to import industrial equipment that could be used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

Several equipment shipments destined for Iraq have been stopped in recent months, the official said, declining to say by whom or where.

It is unclear whether any shipments got through.

US intelligence officials, however, do not believe Iraq has obtained any enriched uranium or plutonium.

Many former inspectors say Iraq's arsenal is not much of a threat because Saddam Hussein has been deterred so far by fear of US retaliation and apparently has been reluctant to share his weapons with terrorists. Mr Ritter, a former US Marine intelligence officer, resigned from the UN inspection team in August 1998 after several years as a member.

He left denouncing former US President Bill Clinton's administration for having withdrawn support for the UN agency and undermining weapons inspection.

He has since said Washington used the inspectors to spy on Iraq a longtime charge by Baghdad and manipulated the UN to provoke a confrontation with President Saddam Hussein as a pretext for US airstrikes on Iraq.

Months after Mr Ritter's resignation, UN inspectors complaining of lack of co-operation from Iraq left Iraq ahead of US-British strikes and they have been barred from returning since then.