UN weapons inspectors have entered a suspected missile factory near Baghdad.
An eight-member team of the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency entered the Nida factory at Zaafaraniya, 20 kilometres west of Baghdad.
Iraqi officials said the factory belongs to the Military Industrialisation Organisation and produces moulds and tools.
According to UN reports, before the 1991 Gulf war the facility was part of Iraq's programme to produce missiles with a range of 650 kilometres.
UN Security Council resolution 687, which defined the terms of the Gulf war ceasefire, prohibits Iraq from acquiring or producing missiles that have a range exceeding 150 kilometres.
The Nida facility was placed under long-term monitoring by the Special Comission, the previous UN body tasked with dismantling Iraq's weapons and programs of mass destruction.
AFP