Eleven empty chemical warheads found

UN INSPECTORS yesterday found 11 empty chemical warheads in “excellent” condition at an Iraqi ammunition storage area where they were inspecting bunkers built in the late 1990s.

A 12th 122mm warhead was found that requires further evaluation, said Hiro Ueki, the spokesman for the inspectors in Baghdad.

The team used portable X-ray equipment to conduct a preliminary analysis of one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing, Ueki's statement said.

"The warheads were in excellent condition and were similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s," Ueki said.

They were found during a visit by inspectors to the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area in southern Iraq.

Iraq has constantly denied still possessing chemical weapons and Ueki did not say how significant the find was. It was a busy day for the inspectors.

One team took an Iraqi physicist from his home to a field outside Baghdad, where together they inspected what appeared to be a man-made mound in the earth.

The move, unprecedented since inspectors in Iraq resumed their search for banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, came after an animated and apparently heated discussion between Iraqi officials and UN weapons experts outside the scientist's house.

The activities and a visit a day before to a presidential palace suggested the inspectors are using new intelligence in their search.

The head of the UN nuclear agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Moscow that inspections would accelerate, but that he would ask the Security Council for more time to complete the search in Iraq.

"We still have quite a bit of work to do, and therefore, we are going to ask for at least a few months to be able to complete our job," he said.

Yesterday's inspections at the homes of physicist Faleh Hassan and his next-door neighbour, nuclear scientist Shaker el-Jibouri, were the first at private houses.

Hassan carrying a box of documents got into a UN car with inspection team leader Dimitri Perricos and an Iraqi liaison officer.

Inspectors had earlier been seen in animated discussion with the Iraqi liaison officers in Hassan's front yard.

"I'm not happy about all of this," Perricos could be heard telling the Iraqi officers before driving off with the silver-haired Hassan in a convoy of UN, Iraqi and journalists' vehicles.

They drove about 10 miles west of Baghdad and stopped at an agricultural area.

Hassan, two inspectors and a liaison officer walked from their cars to a bare field that contained what appeared to be a man-made mound.

The group spent five minutes there before returning to Baghdad.

There, Hassan and several Iraqi liaison officers entered a hotel, Hassan carrying the box the size of a small TV set stuffed with documents.