IRAQ: Over 150 American, British and German companies, including Daimler-Benz and Hewlett Packard, contributed to Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programmes since the early 1970s, according to Iraq's report to the UN Security Council.
The report claims that some companies supplied weapons components and imparted technical know-how until as recently as last year, according to a leaked copy of the 12,000-page report seen by Germany's Tageszeitung newspaper.
The Security Council did not demand information about the foreign involvement in Iraq's weapons programmes and its inclusion in the report appears to be an attempt by Baghdad to embarrass its enemies.
Trade with Iraq in nuclear weapons programmes was outlawed by international treaty in the 1970s and a ban on chemical weapons came into effect a decade later. UN sanctions imposed against Iraq in 1991 ban any trade in conventional weapons.
Mr Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, said on television yesterday, "We will evaluate this report very seriously." The government would search for "confirmed information" about possible illegal exports when it receives the report tomorrow, he said.
The Iraqi report apparently lists company names, the dates of project starts and cover names for projects where military equipment for weapons programmes was disguised as civilian programmes. German firms are in the majority, with over 80 firms listed, including Carl Zeiss, Preussag and Siemens.
Two dozen US firms and even the US government were also involved, according to the report, which notes that the US energy department delivered components for Iraq's nuclear weapons programme in the early 1980s.
Most of the military partnerships detailed in the report end in 1998, an apparent attempt to disprove US claims that Iraq has begun a new weapons programme.
The Tageszeitung said it possessed a copy of the original report, to which US officials had sole access for 24 hours last week.
"They would have had time and opportunity to remove information before making the report available to the other permanent members of the Security Council," the newspaper said.
The original 12,000 page report could embarrass President Bush, if published.
His father, Mr George Bush, was the last president to support military trade with Iraq, encouraged by his predecessor, President Reagan.
It remains unclear whether the full report will be published or presented to the UN Security Council's 15 permanent and non-permanent members, which include Ireland. The working copy now in circulation is a quarter the length of the original.
The UN's chief weapons inspector, Mr Hans Blix, and International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) chief, Mr Mohamed el-Baradei, will address the council on their first evaluation of the dossier tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Iraqi opposition groups failed yesterday to overcome ethnic rivalries as some walked out of a meeting warning of possible civil war if they were sidelined in the event President Saddam Hussein is ousted from power.
The conference of President Saddam's foes, organised by six parties recognised by the United States and attended by 330 people from dozens of exiled groups, concluded in London with calls for a federal democracy in Iraq.
In Iraq, UN arms inspectors widened their search for alleged weapons of mass destruction to the northern province of Mosul yesterday. - (Additional reporting Reuters)
• Nobel peace laureate Ms Betty Williams from Northern Ireland visited yesterday where she met Deputy Prime Minister Mr Tareq Aziz. Ms Williams said she came to show her solidarity with the Iraqi people ahead of the possible war with the US.
- (AFP)