Straw brands Iraq cooperation a 'charade'

British Foreign Secretary Mr JackStraw the UN weapons inspectors report showed that Baghad's cooperation with theinternational…

British Foreign Secretary Mr JackStraw the UN weapons inspectors report showed that Baghad's cooperation with theinternational community was "a charade".

"There is clear evidence now that (President Saddam Hussein)has made this a charade of an inspection, cooperating on processbut not on substance," Mr Straw told reporters after talks withEuropean Union foreign ministers dominated by the Iraq crisis.

"He is practising concealment," Straw said, referring towhat he called the Iraqi leader's failure to come clean on hisalleged stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

The comments were the first official British reaction tochief arms inspector Hans Blix's report to the UN SecurityCouncil, which criticized Iraq for not giving enough evidence onits past weapons of mass destruction programmes but did not.