US President George W. Bush "is concerned about omissions" in Iraq's arms declaration, the White House said today, as the President met top aides to discuss his likely announcement declaring Iraq in violation of a UN disarmament order.
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Irish diplomat John Deady
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White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said the United States would have a formal response soon to the Iraqi declaration, which US officials said failed to disclose Iraq's suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.
"We have learned much about the declaration although the review is not complete," said Mr Fleischer. "The president is concerned about omissions in the declaration and about problems in the declaration."
He said nonetheless that Washington will "continue to pursue a very deliberative approach in dealing with this issue and the potential consequences of determinations about the Iraqi declaration."
Today, the New York Timesis reporting that the United States is set to declare Iraq in violation of a UN resolution requiring it disclose all its weapons of mass destruction.
The report comes as some of the 10 Non-Permanent members of the Security Council protest at omissions in the document handed to the UN by Iraq last week.
The names of US and British companies which provided Iraq with technology and know-how to assist it with it's weapon's program are believed to have been removed.
According to the paper, the US assessment on the 12,000 page report Iraq turned over to the United Nations will be made tomorrow and will coincide with UN Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix's assessment of the Iraqi declaration to the UN Security Council.
Earlier today, the 10 non-permanent UN Security Council members were handed an edited version of the report which one envoy called a welter of disjointed data.
The 10 Security Council members only received excerpts of Iraq's arms declaration following after a week of protests about receiving only an excised version of Baghdad's nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic missile programs.
Omissions include the names of British and US suppliers to Iraq of its arms industry as well as information that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction.
The envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity said "We, however, could still see the names of German and Swiss firms that contributed to Iraq's ballistic missile program in the 1980s."
The council's five permanent members - the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France - obtained an uncensored version of the 12,000-page document more than a week ago, to the consternation of the other council members.
But chief U.N. arms inspectors prepared only about 3,500 pages for the elected 10 council members, who serve two-year terms. The International Atomic Energy Agency issued compact disks with about 2,000 pages on Iraq's nuclear program and then gave out paper copies of binders along with a covering letter from IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei.
"We'll read it and then send it to Damascus," said Syria's deputy ambassador, Fayssal Mekdad, as he collected a cardboard box full of pages from the U.N. Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission, headed by Hans Blix.
"It's about five kilos," said Irish diplomat John Deady, as he hoisted the box before sending it on to Dublin.