United Nations: As war clouds thickened over Iraq, United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on February 14 said the inspectors have not found any weapons of mass destruction in that country, but Baghdad was yet to account for the proscribed weapons and materials.

Blix voiced doubts on US Secretary of State Colin Powell's evidence indicating that Iraq had removed the weapons sites after getting advanced warning about the visit of the UN inspectors and questioned American interpretation of satellite images about suspicious activities at an Iraqi weapons site.

The UN inspectors have "not found any such weapons, only a small number of empty chemical munitions, which should have been declared and destroyed," Blix said in his report to the UN Security Council.

He said although Iraq has increased its co-operation with the inspectors, it still needs to explain what happened to the banned weapons, including stocks of anthrax and VX nerve agent.

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"The issue of anthrax, VX agent and long-range missiles are the most important problems and Iraq itself must tackle the task," Blix said.

Blix however, made it clear that although many proscribed weapons and items are not accounted for, "one must not jump to the conclusion that they exist. However, that possibility is also not excluded. If they exist, they should be presented for destruction."

If they do not exist, credible evidence to that effect should be presented, Blix said.

Referring to Powell's using satellite images of an ammunition depot in Iraq, he said, "The reported movement of ammunitions at the site could just as easily have been a routine activity as a movement of proscribed munitions in anticipation of an imminent inspection.

"In no case have we seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew in advance that the inspectors were coming," the chief UN inspector said.

The American Secretary of State had told the Council last week the taped conversation of Iraqi officials showed that they had prior information about UN inspections.

Blix reported findings by a panel of experts that one of Iraq's new missile systems exceeds the range limit set by Security Council resolutions.

"The experts concluded that, based on the data provided by Iraq, the two declared variants of the al-Samoud 2 missile were capable of exceeding 150 kms in range. This missile system is therefore proscribed for Iraq," Blix said.

On another missile al-Fatah, Blix said, "The experts found that clarification of the missile data supplied by Iraq was required before the capability of the missile system could be fully assessed."

PTI