Satellite images show new buildings on many of the Iraqi nuclear sites inspected in the past by the United Nations, the chief of the UN's disarmament team said yesterday. The Bush Administration expressed concern over the report.
"Images supplied by commercial satellites show that buildings have been built or rebuilt on the sites which we previously inspected," Mr Jacques Baute said.
Mr Baute, who in the past led a number of teams to Iraq for the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), refused to name the sites, but said they housed "joint civil and military nuclear installations".
The White House expressed its concern about the reported new buildings. "Without talking specifically about any intelligence information, this is a troubling report," spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said yesterday.
Mr Baute said, "Surprise inspections are the best way of deterring Iraq from trying to manufacture a nuclear bomb."
He added that all the buildings which had previously been used by Iraq in a nuclear weapons programme were destroyed before UN inspectors were withdrawn in December 1998.
The AIEA has been charged by the United Nations with carrying out inspections on Iraq, but since 1998 that country has refused allow them back.
Their return has been pushed for by the United States, which is now trying to gain international support for military action against Iraq.