American spies yield to Blix over weapons

Hans Blix, the United Nations' chief weapons inspector, was preparing this weekend to begin a new, more invasive phase in the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, making use of intelligence from Washington and London, and new military hardware ranging from helicopters to flying drones.

The stepped-up effort, involving more than 100 inspectors in Iraq, will be in stark contrast to the inspections of the past few weeks, which have been short of manpower and equipment.

If the past weeks have been a dress rehearsal for Mr Blix, his work in the month ahead will be the real thing that may finally determine whether or not there is war in Iraq.

After weeks of hesitation, Washington has now indicated readiness to start feeding Mr Blix, and his opposite number at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed El Baradei, its own intelligence on where Saddam Hussein may be storing prohibited armaments.

London is also expected to make its own intelligence available to the inspectors.

US officials hinted that some of the information, mostly gleaned from satellites, may be transmitted to the UN and IAEA in instalments. Mr Blix had made an appeal for access to American and British intelligence on Friday, arguing that it would facilitate findingany hidden stockpiles of banned chemical, biological and nuclear materials.

Reportedly, Washington had been concerned that Mr Blix's UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic)would be unable to ensure information did not leak to the Iraqis.

But yesterday Ari Fleischer, a White House spokesman, said: "It is entirely in the interests of the United States ... to give the inspectors the tools they need to do their job, and we will do so."

Nuclear experts yesterday re-visited al-Nassr al-Atheem Company, an engineering plant at Daura refinery, south of Baghdad. Other inspectors searched al-Raya Company, owned by Iraq's military industrialisation commission.

Plans for reinforcing the inspections were partially spelled out by Mr Blix during a closed meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday. He said that while most inspections had so far been done overland, with teams using Jeeps, they would soon be partially airborne. Seven more helicopters, besides the existing one, would be ready for use by the end of the week. Mr Blix is also procuring aeroplanes and unmanned drone aircraft to conduct low-level aerial surveillance across Iraq.

The number of inspectors is also being increased; about 100 are expected to be fully operational by 31 December, and training of more inspectors starts in January. The Unmovic HQ in Baghdad will be expanded in the next few weeks, and a regional base will open in Mosul. Mr Blix also expects to interview Iraqi scientists on the alleged weapons programmes.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Mr Blix will respond to Washington's urging to try to remove some scientists from Iraq to interview them beyond the gaze of Saddam's government.