Iraq destroyed WMD years ago says Blix

Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix believes that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago.

Blix said it was unlikely that the US and British teams now searching for weapons in Iraq would find more than some "documents of interest."

"I'm certainly coming more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they maintained, destroyed all, almost, of what they had in the summer of 1991," Blix told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The more time that has passed, the more I think it's unlikely that anything will be found."

Blix indicated he thought the US led coalition had backtracked on the issue of Iraq's weapons.

"In the beginning they talked about weapons concretely, and later on they talked about weapons programmes."

Blix said Iraq might have tried to fool the United States into believing it had weapons of mass destruction over the years in order to deter attack.

"I mean, you can put up a sign on your door, 'Beware of the Dog,' without having a dog," he said.