US forces in Iraq have yet to find any evidence of the suspected chemical or biological weapons that prompted the invasion, a US general said last night.
General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations on the US military's Joint Staff, also told a briefing that none of the missiles fired by Iraq so far in the war had been a Scud.
Scud missiles, along with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, are among the arms that Iraq was barred from possessing by UN resolutions after the 1991 Gulf War.
President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accuse Iraq of having violated the resolutions and say President Saddam Hussein could provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.
Asked if any Scuds had been found by the US-British forces that have invaded Iraq, General McChrystal said: "To my knowledge, we have not discovered any to this point," adding: "So far there have been no Scuds launched, which is very positive today."
Asked if any signs of chemical or biological weapons had been found, the general replied: "We have found no caches of weapons of mass destruction to date."
Iraq says it has destroyed all its stocks of chemical and biological weapons.