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Your support makes all the difference.UN weapons inspectors said today that they need months to search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but getting that time may depend on whether Saddam provides new evidence about nuclear, chemical and biological programmes.
Chief UN inspector Hans Blix said Iraq must answer outstanding questions about its weapons programs or may face the possibility of war.
Mr Blix said he and Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will deliver this message to the Iraqi government when they visit Baghdad on Sunday and Monday.
"I think they only need look around their borders and they should realize the seriousness," Mr Blix said in an interview with The Associated Press, alluding to the huge US military buildup in the Gulf and neighbouring Kuwait.
"We would hope ... for a peaceful solution to this, and that inspection can provide that," he said. "I think also what the show of force demonstrates to Iraq is that here is the other alternative."
Mr Blix stressed the peaceful alternative is much cheaper than war. "We are perhaps 250 or 300 people on the inspection side. We cost about US$80 million a year. If you take the armed path, you are talking about US$100 billion, you're talking about 250,000 men, you're talking about a lot of people killed and injured, a lot of damage," he said.
Mr Blix and Mr ElBaradei said that although Iraq has cooperated in providing access to sites, it had not provided the information inspectors need to verify its claim that it has no banned weapons and long-range missiles to deliver them.
"There are a great many open questions as to their possession of weapons of mass destruction and the Security Council and the world would like to be assured that these questions be sorted out," Mr Blix said. How long this takes "depends entirely on how cooperative the Iraqis are."
Mr ElBaradei, in Paris for meetings with top French officials, said his inspectors "still need a few months to achieve our mission" but the time frame will depend on Baghdad's willingness to supply documents, allow UN inspectors to interview Iraqi scientists and show physical evidence of what facilities and weapons have been destroyed.
The international community, he said, is "getting impatient that after 11 years, we have not yet brought to a closure this file about Iraq's disarmament."
Both men stressed that their report to the Security Council on 27 January would be an update — not a final report on inspections which resumed in November after four years.
"We can see a lot of work ahead of us beyond that date if we are allowed to do so," Blix said, but the decision on whether inspections continue is up to the Security Council.
He said he did not know how long the American government was willing to wait for his team to carry out its searches.
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