UN experts are pursuing their hunt for banned arms as Iraqi newspapers decry "savage interference" in their work by the United States and Britain. Iraqi officials said today the inspectors had searched more suspect sites, including a space research centre in Baghdad.
Several teams went to the Taji industrial area north of the capital, including a missile squad that checked a military site there. Biological experts drove to al-Kindi Company in Abu Ghuraib, west of the capital. A chemical company in Nahrawan, south of Baghdad, attracted the attention of another UN team.
The inspectors returned to Iraq last month to check Iraq's assertion that it no longer runs programmes to develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or long-range missiles.
The United States has threatened to go to war unless Iraq disarms after declaring all its weapons of mass destruction.
"This is impossible," said a daily owned by President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, "because no human being can prove the existence of something that does not exist."
Babelalso denounced what it called shameless lies by the United States and Britain about Iraq's arms programmes.
"They should leave the UN inspectors to do their job to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1441 with no more savage interference," the newspaper said.
Last month's resolution gave Iraq a final opportunity to disarm or face serious consequences. Baghdad gave the council a 12,000-page weapons dossier on December 7th, but the United States and Britain say it was far from complete.
Chief UN inspector Hans Blix and his counterpart at the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, have also said Iraq had added little new, but urged the United States and Britain to share any intelligence they have with the inspectors.