UN inspectors begin search for Saddam's weapons

United Nations inspectors this morning began searching for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The UN teams in a convoy of nine white four-wheel drive vehicles and vans with black 'UN' logos left their compound on the outskirts of Baghdad at 8.30am (04.30 GMT). Air raid sirens sounded over the Iraqi capital as the inspections began.

Six UN vehicles, trailed by scores of international journalists, reached the military-run Graphite Rod Factory, 25 miles south-west of Baghdad. The UN experts disappeared into the sprawling complex without explaining their precise purpose. Reporters were barred.

The inspectors in the other three UN vehicles went to al-Tahadi, a factory run by the Ministry of Industry 6 miles east of Baghdad. About 10 inspectors spent three hours inside the complex as a crowd of journalists waited outside, then headed back to their headquarters. The complex was sealed during their inspection with no one allowed in or out. The inspectors did not speak to journalists.

A working group of 17 inspectors is the first contingent of some 100 who will be operating in Iraq at any one time by the end of the year. More than 300 experts are available from the two UN inspecting agencies — the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and the New York-based UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC.

They have warned that modern technology and sweeping powers under a tough new UN resolution will enable them to find absolutely anything the Iraqis might attempt to hide.

The UN claims it has the ability to find mobile laboratories and underground systems. Suspected sites would be "frozen" while "intrusive and exhaustive" searches are made. Full use would also be made of the powers to mount "no warning" raids on suspected sites including presidential palaces.

Senior officials said they would be able to check the report Iraq has to submit to the UN on 8 December about its weapons programme within two weeks, a far shorter period than initially expected. This means that if a "material breach" by the Iraqi regime is uncovered, the United States would have the time to launch its threatened attack well within the military "campaigning season" early next year, before the arrival of hot weather.

The first detailed description of the methods the inspectors will use in their operations as well as their range was given on the eve of the first search by Dmitri Perricos, head of the Unmovic (UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) team, which will be hunting chemical and biological weapons. Jacques Baute, leading the IAEA ( International Atomic Energy Agency) contingent, is investigating Iraq's nuclear capability.

Mr Perricos admitted the previous inspection mission, abandoned in 1998, was undermined by the UN, as well as the Iraqi regime, "moving the goalposts". He said there was Iraqi frustration because the goalposts had been moved. But they had "shot themselves in the foot'' by falsely denying they were producing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and especially their biological programme.

Mr Perricos said: " We have also got the new resolution. It means we will not have to camp outside places, but we shall have the power to go knocking on doors and saying, 'Here we are'. We shall also have the mandate to visit military sites and not have to wait for two or three hours to get in, which gives plenty of time to get rid of incriminating things."

The possibility of a confrontation on the first inspection rose after the Iraqis invited the international media to accompany the inspectors and be taken into the site – in "Iraqi sovereign territory" – while the checks are being made. The UN declared yesterday that it vehemently opposes this.

Discord has returned to the UN Security Council after a manoeuvre by the United States to hold up an agreement to extend a humanitarian aid programme for Iraq, because of concerns Baghdad may be exploiting it to import military goods to defend itself in war.

After a fractious meeting on Monday evening, the council abandoned attempts to extend for another six months its oil-for-food programme that allows Iraq to sell oil only if proceeds buy medical and food supplies. Instead, they agreed to roll it over only until 4 December, pending further negotiations.

Before the oil-for-food arrangement is renewed, Washington is demanding expansion of a list of sensitive items that must be scrutinised by a UN committee before import approval is granted, to ensure they cannot be used for military purposes. The goods Washington wants added include antidotes for chemical and biological attack and electronic items such as communications jammers.

But the request angered many members of the council who wanted to avoid giving any impression of division on Iraq. "We want a solution to this and everyone must try to come together," Norway's ambassador, Peter Kolby, said. The delay was condemned by Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed alDouri. "It will have bad effects on the Iraqi people," he said.