US/IRAQ: Iraq's declaration of programmes which could develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons will be handed to UN officials in Baghdad this evening, one day early, but is unlikely to be seen by the United States or other Security Council members for several days. From Conor O'Clery, North America Editor.
Meanwhile disagreement burst into the open yesterday between the weapons inspectors and the White House over US demands to interview Iraqi scientists about weapons programmes outside the country.
The Security Council agreed yesterday that Iraq's declaration would not be distributed until weapons inspectors had removed anything which might help terrorists assemble weapons of mass destruction. The 10,000-page declaration in Arabic and English will first have to be translated fully into English.
The bulky declaration will be flown tomorrow to Vienna, seat of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and to New York, where it will be assessed by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as Unmovic, for chemical and biological programmes.
The declaration, demanded by the UN before December 8th, is supposed to include "a currently accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects of its programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons . . . as well as all other chemical, biological and nuclear programmes, including any which it claims are for purposes not related to weapon production or material".
This means that Iraq must give details of all materials in its civilian industries, such as petrochemicals, which could be used in weapons of mass destruction.
Asked about reports that the US was pressing for the weapons inspectors to question Iraqi scientists outside the country, Dr Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector told reporters yesterday quite sharply: "We are not going to abduct anybody and we're not serving as a defection agency."
In Washington, the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said: "Given Iraq's history of brutal witness intimidation - including imprisonment, torture and murder - this is a key tool for inspectors to make certain that Saddam Hussein disarms. By providing for such interviews in its resolution, the Security Council expects inspectors to take advantage of it."
The State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, added: "Conducting interviews is a critical tool for the inspectors."
Iraq's ambassador to the UN, Mr Mohamed Aldouri, said yesterday he had been told there were "new elements in the report" but repeated Baghdad's claim that Iraq no longer had any banned weapons. "Everything has been destroyed. Iraq is clean of any kind of mass destruction weapons. We provided all information they need," Mr Aldouri said.
Although the declaration will be delivered to New York tomorrow, the 15 Security Council members will not receive a copy until much later, according to Colombia's UN ambassador, Mr Alfonso Valdivieso, this month's council president. Russia and other council members have expressed concern that the documents might contain "recipes" for chemical and biological weapons.
Dr Blix said it would be censored in line with international treaties on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, adding it would take "a little bit of time". He is to brief the council on Tuesday. "All the governments are aware that they should not have access to anything that everyone else does not have access to," Dr Blix said.
Reuters adds: The general set to command any US war on Iraq has arrived in Qatar to test his new mobile headquarters in an exercise which could be a dress rehearsal for action against Baghdad.
Gen Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, flew to the Gulf state from Tampa, Florida, for the war game beginning on Monday.
Although the Pentagon has said that President Bush has made no decision on whether to attack Iraq, the US has been building up forces in the region. "Exercise Internal Look" is a classified war game involving 1,000 Central Command personnel in Qatar plus several thousand more at the command's permanent Florida headquarters and other Gulf bases.