Iraqis to flood UN with data to slow inspectors' work

The Iraqi regime is considering deluging the United Nations with documentation on its weapons programme, a move that could tie up the inspectors for months.

At a meeting with ministers and officials, Hans Blix, the UN's chief weapons inspector, presented an exhaustive list of demands and also pointed out that any sign of withholding information could lead to an American attack.

Iraq may now "play the UN at their own game" by presenting vast amount of material about "dual-use" facilities, a stipulation under the new United States-sponsored resolution, diplomatic sources said.

Washington and London allege that Saddam Hussein is hiding the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction under the cloak of civil production. The Iraqis insist, however, that such claims are either false or of such a broad nature that a massive array of sites could be included.

Mr Blix told the Iraqis during his visit to Baghdad that factories producing sponge mattresses and slippers were among sites his team intended to visit. This opens the way for the Iraqis to put forward anything with a remote connection to arms manufacturing. If they do, it will delay the inspectors and make it harder for America to launch a war before the onset of hot weather in Iraq.

Apart from complaining that the sheer volume of information demanded will make it difficult to meet the first deadline of 8 December, the Iraqis have, on the surface at least, accepted the new resolution without protest, the UN said.

This includes the right of inspectors to make surprise checks on "special sites" such as Saddam Hussein's palaces. "That is settled by resolution. It wasn't even discussed," Mr Blix, 74, a former Swedish foreign minister, said.

Mohamed al-Baradei, the Egyptian-born director of the International Atomic Energy Authority, charged with investigating whether Saddam Hussein is trying to acquire nuclear weapons, said in Cyprus on his way back from Baghdad: "The Iraqis have said they would do everything possible to ensure that the declaration would cover all activities, both nuclear weapons as well as even activities in their civil sector."

Mr Blix and and Mr Baradei said things had gone so smoothly that they felt there was no need for them to return to Iraq for the start of the inspections next week. They will supervise their teams from New York and Vienna respectively.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi regime seized on an attack by the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, against the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, who had said Iraq's decision to fire at American and British aircraft over the "no-fly zone" did not constitute a "material breach" of the resolution.

An Iraqi foreign ministry official said: "This is another example of the Americans trying to undermine this UN mission. It is in their interest to ensure the inspections are halted over an excuse. They are re-writing the rules every day."

Though British diplomats have also said the Iraqi move was not a "breach", the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, said it should be considered "part of the picture", one that the Security Council would discuss.

Iraq said President George Bush's latest call for an international coalition to be ready for war was "another provocation by the evil administration".