The chief UN weapons inspector has said Iraq has to provide "convincing" evidence to prove it no longer had any weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Hans Blix, just back from a trip to Baghdad, told the UN Security Council that four years had passed since the last inspections and that many governments believed that dangerous arms programmes remained in Iraq.
Mr Blix confirmed inspections would begin tomorrow, with 19 arms experts, 11 from his unit and eight from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in charge of nuclear arms teams.
By Christmas, he hoped to have 100 people on the ground, he told reporters after briefing the council.
"If the Iraqi side were to state as it still did at our meeting - that there were no such [weapons] programmes, it would need to provide convincing documentary or other evidence," Mr Blix said.
He said earlier declarations Iraq had submitted to the inspectors "in many cases left an open question whether some weapons remained" and did not "give a full account.
"The production of mustard gas is not exactly the same as the production of marmalade," he told reporters. "If they [the Iraqis] want to be believed they had better provide either the weapons, if they remain, or a better account," Mr Blix said.
"They maintained the position that they have no weapons of mass destruction," Mr Blix said. "I said they should look into their stores and stocks".
Iraq has to submit a declaration to the council by December 8th, listing all its weapons programs as well as materials that could be used as ingredients for nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic arms.