Iraq has announced the excavation of large quantities of anthrax and the deadly nerve agent VX as it steps up disarmament activities, saying it is doing all it can to avert a US-led war.
However, President Saddam Hussein's scientific adviser, Mr Amer al-Saadi, said yesterday that the destruction of the banned al-Samoud 2 missiles, ordered by chief weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix, would stop if the United States decided to wage war against Iraq unilaterally.
"If it turns out that America is not going the legal way, why should we continue [with the destruction of prohibited missiles\]?" Mr Saadi asked, referring to a new draft resolution before the UN Security Council that could authorise military action.
Mr Saadi announced that experts had dug up bomb fragments filled with tonnes of toxic agents which Iraq insists it destroyed after the 1991 Gulf War without UN supervision.
Excavations at the al-Aziziya air base south-west of Baghdad had uncovered fragments of nearly all 157 bombs filled with tonnes of toxic agents which Iraq insists it destroyed unilaterally in 1991, Mr Saadi said.
"So far we have reached a figure not quite 157, but we are nearing it, there is work in progress. So far, more than eight [bombs\] have been found which were intact, not perforated, which could be tested for the material inside."
As for the anthrax which Iraq also claimed to have destroyed, Mr Saadi said that material was at a site called al-Hakam and was the subject of a meeting late yesterday between newly arrived UN biological experts and Iraqi authorities.
He said the 1.5 tonnes of VX which the United Nations said remained to be accounted for were "unilaterally destroyed in a dumping site near al-Muthanna State Establishment and we have made analyses which strongly indicate that the total material was destroyed there".
That was also being discussed in yesterday evening's talks, he said, adding: "The results that we have made so far indicate something which is near, quite near, that total was destroyed there."
Meanwhile, Mr Saadi said a second batch of six al-Samoud 2 missiles were destroyed under UN supervision yesterday, bringing the total to 10 in two days, while a second casting chamber used in the manufacturing process for the missiles had also been destroyed.
Dr Blix had ordered Iraq to scrap the missiles after UN experts said they exceeded the 150-km range allowed under disarmament terms.
Mr Saadi said Iraq had 100 al-Samoud 2 missiles, with another 20 still on the assembly line.
The missile destruction as well as private interviews with Iraqi germ and missile experts are considered key tests of Iraq's willingness to co-operate with the inspectors probing its alleged weapons of mass destruction programmes.
"So as you can see, there is pro-active co-operation on the Iraqi side," Mr Saadi said, adding that UN inspectors conducted three private interviews with Iraqi scientists in recent days.
He said a new letter on "the indigenous production of rockets" was expected to be sent to the United Nations later yesterday .
He also called on the international community to acknowledge progress made by Iraq and block attempts by the US and its allies to pass a resolution at the Security Council for the use of force.
However, determination to prosecute the war appeared undiminished yesterday.
"Win or lose at the UN, the Iraqi army will get flattened quickly," the Sunday Telegraph quoted an unnamed British minister as saying: " We are not going to hang around. There is a sense of immediacy. It will be two, three weeks from now, not longer." - (AFP)