Iraq has shown new signs of substantive co-operation in recent days, chief UN weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix said this afternoon.
Baghdad has sent inspectors half a dozen letters in the past few days and "there are some elements which are positive which need to be explored further," he said before meeting his advisory College of Commissioners to discuss his report to the Security Council due by Saturday.
Iraq and the UN have achieved several "breakthroughs" in the disarmament process in recent days, President Saddam Hussein's top adviser said this evening.
"We made some progress - in fact we made some breakthroughs in some of them (outstanding issues)," General Amer al-Saadi told reporters.
Saadi, who handles contacts with UN arms inspectors, said he had sent chief inspector Hans Blix "in the past few days more than six letters regarding those (remaining) questions".
"We have informed him that we found an important document and the remains of destroyed weapons in a known site."
Dr Blix has complained that Iraq was not providing substantive information about its weapons programme.
Asked if there was any indication by the Iraqis of substantive co-operation, Dr Blix replied "yes."
Dr Blix said one letter from Iraq informed inspectors that "they have found an R-400 bomb containing liquid in a site which is known to us at which they did dispose of biological weapons before."
He gave no details, but these aerial bombs were filled with biological agents. Among the outstanding issues which Iraq has not answered is providing documentation about the filling of R-400 bombs with aflotoxin.
Dr Blix said "there is another letter that tells us they have found some hand-written documents concerning the act of disposal of prohibited items in 1991."
"Now all these have to be followed up, but these are new elements," he said.
Dr Blix said he has received no reply from the Iraqi government to his order to start destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles, their engines and components by Saturday for exceeding the 93 mile limit in UN resolutions.
Iraq says the missiles don't exceed the limit and has asked for technical talks.
But when Dr Blix was asked whether the issue was open for debate, he said, "not between us and Iraq."
AP