Photocopies row over Iraqi weapons declaration

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sparked a row with the United States over who should have photocopied the Iraqi weapons declaration.

Mr Annan criticised the Americans for making copies of the document that arrived in New York on Sunday, following complaints that a party less deeply involved in the dispute with Saddam Hussein should have done the job.

“It was unfortunate, and I hope it is not going to be repeated,” he said.

Iraqi officials have accused the US of using the opportunity to distort the report, in which they claim to have no weapons of mass destruction.

But US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte hit back at Mr Annan, saying: “Somebody had to make copies.”

He told the BBC: “It was 12,000 pages long. It was a very large mechanical task.”

He described the row as a “small tempest in a teapot” which should not obscure the UN’s determination to make Saddam disarm.

The dispute is the latest spat surrounding the report.

The 15-nation Security Council decided last week that none of its members would see the document until UN experts removed any content that could help in the production of proscribed weapons.

But the US persuaded the council on Sunday to give unedited copies to its five permanent members, which includes Britain.

Non-permanent members, led by Norway and Syria, accused Washington of arrogance, and complained it turned them into the council’s “B-team“.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said he expects to be able to give copies of the declaration to all 15 Security Council members by Monday.