US experts investigate suspect bio-terror sites

US experts are investigating more than 40 sites in Afghanistan where al-Qaida operatives could have made weapons of mass destruction.

Samples and papers have been taken from the sites, which are scattered across Afghanistan, and are now being tested in labs across America.

The revelation came from General Tommy Franks, the commander in charge of US operations in Afghanistan, who says no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons had been found in the searches.

"We have, indeed, more than 40 places which represent potential for weapons of mass destruction research or things of that sort," said the general.

"We are very systematically going about our way of visiting each one of these. We will continue to visit them until we have gone through all of them. The sorts of testing that are necessary will not be ready in 24 or 48 hours."

General Franks says the materials that had been found could have been used to make weapons of mass destruction - or could have been used to produce explosives or even fertilisers.

"We have not found something that we believe is a specific thing," he said.

"That is why we are going to test them all. They go to a whole variety of laboratories working with a whole variety of institutions in this country.

"We have found a variety of chemical compounds and these sorts of things, but one would be able to associate that with the making of fertilisers or any other product. We have acquired a great deal of samples and now what we have to do is be very thorough in our analysis."

The revelation came after reports that manuals for assembling nuclear weapons had been discovered in Kabul and chemical weapons had been found at al-Qaida camps in other areas of Afghanistan.