Washington: Several programmes dealing with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) have been uncovered in Iraq by the team of US weapons searchers led by David Kay, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell has said.

There are "dozens and dozens" of programmes that Dr. David Kay and his team of inspectors have uncovered in Iraq dealing with WMD, Powell said here on October 3 at a joint appearance with Hungarian Foreign Minister, Laszlo Koves.

"The Kay report also talks about a number of issues the US presented to the United Nations Security Council on February 5 in New York, missiles that exceed the ranges permitted by the UN that could go out to a thousand kilometres, and unmanned aerial vehicles that Iraq was developing", Powell said.

Kay documents the fact that Iraq was doing everything it could to hide things from the UN inspectors who were sent in 2002, he said.

With respect to chemical weapons, there were hundreds of facilities that had to be looked at. 600,000 tonnes of munitions that the team had to go through to see if there were any chemical munitions among them, Powell said.

"Kay talks about the hard drives that have been destroyed and about the possibility of laboratories where human beings were exposed to biological agents for testing purposes", the US Secretary of State said.

So, one has to look at the whole report, said Powell.

"Have we found a factory or a plant or a warehouse full of chemical rounds? No, not yet. But, as he said, there is much more work to be done," he added.

Kay, said Powell, also showed evidence of biological weapons elements such as botulinum and other horrible elements that the Iraqis were keeping hidden from the UN.

"I think it is clear," said Powell, "that this was a regime that had not given up, had not abandoned, had not declared honestly to the UN what they were doing. And Kay is slowly uncovering it."

Asked whether he was confident that actual weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq, Powell said "Do you think vials of botulinum should constitute a weapon of mass destruction?"

"Do you think missiles that are being developed outside the requirements and restrictions of the United Nations that could carry such sorts of weapons or that unmanned aerial vehicles are dangerous items that clearly suggested that this was a regime that was trying to develop more of these weapons", Powell said.

PTI