Chief UN weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix told the UN Security Council yesterday that UN inspectors had not found "any smoking guns" in Iraq during their search for banned weapons, but that they were not receiving full co-operation from Iraqi officials.
Dr Blix and Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief nuclear weapons inspector, said Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration, submitted to the council last month, was not credible, and that Baghdad had not responded to calls for new information.
They said they would fly to the Iraqi capital on January 19th to raise these issues with Iraqi officials before submitting their first formal report on the progress of inspections to the 15-nation Security Council on January 27th.
"We now have been there for some two months and have been covering the country in ever-wider sweeps, and we haven't found any smoking guns," Dr Blix said.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer responded: "The problem with guns that are hidden is you can't see their smoke. We know for a fact that there are weapons there."
The heads of the UN inspection teams, who briefed the council for a second time in three weeks on the Iraqi dossier, said they needed more intelligence from UN members to help their search.
Dr ElBaradei complained that inspectors had not been able to talk to scientists without Iraqi officials being present. "That does not show the pro-active co-operation we seek," he said.
Dr Blix also told the council that Iraq had not made a "serious effort" to respond to his request for the names of Iraqi scientists who were involved in weapons of mass destruction programmes.
In Baghdad, Gen Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison officer to the inspection teams, said a UN inspector had raised the possibility of taking Iraqi scientists to Cyprus for questioning. They could decide for themselves whether to go but were expected to refuse, he said.
The US has been pressing the inspectors to take scientists outside Iraq for interrogation rather than question them inside the country where Baghdad insists on minders being present, despite protests from UN officials.
Oil prices rose after Dr Blix's comments on speculation that the failure by Iraq to co-operate fully brought the prospect of an American-led assault closer.
The British and French ambassadors to the UN criticised Iraq for not supplying data to confirm Baghdad's claims it had destroyed chemical and biological weapons.
Dr Blix told the Security Council Iraq had admitted in its declaration to importing missile engines and raw materials for the production of solid missile fuel, in violation of UN resolutions.