UN weapons experts continue their work in Iraq today making a surprise visit to the headquarters of the Iraqi arms monitoring body (IMD) in Baghdad, a hospital in the north and a university in the south.
Witnesses said once the inspectors went into the IMD building, they closed its main gate and blocked its entrance with one of their vehicles, preventing movement in and out of the facility.
The IMD is the government body acting as liaison to the inspectors who are hunting for alleged weapons of mass destruction. IMD officials have accompanied the experts on every inspection since they resumed work in Iraq on November 27th.
A day after the inspectors set up a permanent presence in Mosul, 220 miles north of Baghdad, they entered on Ibn Sina hospital in the city.
A 21-member multi-disciplinary inspection team travelled to Mosul on Saturday to set up a permanent regional office from where they would launch inspections in northern Iraq. A spokesman said the move would speed up their mission.
Another inspection team that has been in Basra for the past two days visited a university in the port city for the second day.
A team visited the April 7 Public Company in the outskirts of Baghdad and another headed towards an undisclosed location to the west, the Iraqi officials said.
Teams from the UN Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) examined seven sites, including a brewery and an airforce base, on Saturday.
Inspections are now in their sixth week but the experts have yet to disclose any evidence of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programmes. The inspectors must report their findings to the Security Council by January 27th.
Chief weapons inspector Mr Hans Blix has said the findings would include the results of laboratory tests of samples taken in Iraq. He will make an interim report to the UN Security Council on Thursday and visit Iraq from January 18th to 20th.
Meanwhile, the United States and Britain are preparing to send more troops to join the tens of thousands already massed in the Gulf ahead of a possible invasion of Iraq.