UN arms experts inspected a factory and a laboratory close to Baghdad today on the second day of inspections in Iraq in nearly four years.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entered without incident Al-Nasser factory, 25 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital, which belongs to the industry ministry.
The IAEA team and the Iraqis accompanying them entered the factory immediately, while dozens of journalists and TV crews that tracked the UN convoy were kept outside.
At the same time, a UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) team visited the huge Al-Taji site, some 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, which is home to a laboratory producing vaccines.
The experts from the IAEA and UNMOVIC left the Canal Hotel, a former hotel turned into the UN base in the Baghdad suburbs, at 8.30 am (5.30 a.m. Irish time).
The six IAEA experts and 11 UNMOVIC inspectors split into two groups, with each team to visit different facilities taken from a list of more than 700 suspect sites.
The two teams were accompanied by counterparts from Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate. The UN inspectors have described co-operation on the first day of checks as good
The number of inspectors will begin to increase rapidly in the coming days to reach about 100 by the end of the year to accelerate the disarmament process, according to the United Nations.
Under UN Security Council resolution 1441 adopted November 8th, the teams have unprecedented powers to search Iraqi sites and question local scientists about President Saddam Hussein's arms programmes.
Iraq has strongly denied having any weapons of mass destruction and says the inspectors will find nothing incriminating.
AFP