Hunt for Iraqi weapons slows to crawl

US military units assigned to track down Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have run out of places to look and are getting time off or being assigned to other duties, even as pressure mounts on US President George Bush to explain why no banned arms have been found.

After nearly three months of fruitless searches, weapons hunters say they are now waiting for Pentagon intelligence experts to take over the effort, relying more on leads from interviews and documents.