UN arms inspectors swooped on an Iraqi presidential palace in Baghdad this morning and carried out a two-hour search.
The team of inspectors entered the palace early this morning using a new UN resolution to gain access.
They left without briefing waiting journalists on whether they had found anything illegal.
UN Security Council Resolution 1441 grants the inspectors wide powers to search anywhere for suspected weapons of mass destruction. Today's search was the first time it has been used by the UN inspectors.
President Saddam Hussein's eight presidential palaces - three of them in Baghdad - are high on the list of suspected hiding places for weapons of mass destruction, but Iraq sees them as important symbols of its sovereignty and dignity.
UN inspectors tried to gain access to the compounds in 1997, but Baghdad refused, and the United States threatened to attack Iraq. UN Secretary Gen Mr Kofi Annan visited Baghdad in February 1998 to broker a deal to avoid military action.
UN arms experts visited suspect sites yesterday and said they had discovered some equipment and several UN monitoring cameras had gone missing from a missile factory.
US President George Bush said last night that signs Saddam Hussein will co-operate with weapons inspectors and avoid a war "are not encouraging". He said he will not tolerate "any act of delay, deception or defiance".
The UN resolution gives Iraq until Sunday to disclose its weapons of mass destruction, a deadline Mr Bush is seeking to cast as a major test of Saddam's will.
Agencies