UN weapons experts visited atleast five suspect sites in Iraq today, vowing no let-upfor Christmas, while Saddam Hussein warned Iraqis the drums ofwar were beating louder.
"They are in Baghdad to work and they will work their buttsoff as long as they are there," Mr Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman forthe International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Christmas Eve.
"We will continue work throughout the holiday," he said.Iraqi officials said teams from the IAEA and the UNMonitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)began the inspection of at least five sites in central andsouthern Iraq on Christmas Day.
A ballistics team was at Ibn al-Haitham military facility incentral Iraq, while a biological team was checking Taji factory,the Iraqi officials said. Other teams were heading to twoundisclosed locations south and west of Baghdad, they said.
Around two dozen experts who spent the night in the southernport city of Basra also headed to undisclosed locations in andaround the city. One of those teams inspected a paper plant.
Yesterday, the inspectors formally questioned a seniornuclear scientist at a Baghdad college in what they said was aresumption of a regular interview programme suspended in 1998.