UN arms inspectors searched four suspect sites today and an Iraqi daily likened US and British leaders to ruthless Mongol conquerors of old.
Iraqi officials said a team of nuclear experts had revisited al-Nassr al-Atheem Company, a heavy engineering plant located in the Daura refinery just south of Baghdad.
Other inspectors searched al-Raya Company, owned by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission, in the Taji industrial area north of the capital, and two other sites.
Babelnewspaper, owned by President Saddam Hussein's 38-year-old son Uday, marked its return to the news stands after a month-long ban with a tirade against US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"The eternal problem of the evil US administration is that the barking of its dogs is still going on even though there is no justification," Babelsaid in an editorial.
It carried the headline "Bush - Hulagu of the age", a reference to Mongol warrior Genghiz Khan's grandson, who captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying the Abbasid Caliphate. The Information Ministry banned Babel on November 20th, saying it had violated its instructions. It gave no further explanation. Babelitself did not comment on the ban.
Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, is chairman of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and the Iraqi journalists' union. He also owns the popular Shebab (Youth) television channel.
The United States declared this week that Iraq's recent arms declaration was a "material breach" of last month's Security Council resolution that gave Baghdad a last chance to disarm or face serious consequences.
General Hussam Mohammed Amin, the senior Iraqi official liaising with the inspectors, told Reuters yesterday that the US response was "exaggerated" and politically motivated.