UN remains wary of Iraq's claim on anthrax stocks

Iraq will submit a new report on VX gas and anthrax to the United Nations in the next six days in an attempt to prove that it has destroyed its entire stock of the chemical and biological agents.

During what is widely considered to be the endgame of a looming military strike on Iraq by the United States and Britain, the detailed report will play an important part in deciding whether Baghdad is in "material breach" of Security Council resolution 1441.

A senior UN source said, though, that the Iraqi proposal of "quantitative verification" that it had destroyed its chemical weapons still posed problems. The source said that even if the Iraqis did unearth a site of alleged arms destruction, showing they had indeed destroyed VX gas and anthrax, verifying the quantities involved would be difficult.

With its submission, Iraq was saying it had nothing left to declare over its alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. If this is disputed by Hans Blix, the UN's chief weapons inspector, it may give Washington and London the "smoking gun" they seek for an attack.

The Iraqi offer was made a few days before Mr Blix is to delivers his report to the Security Council on Iraqi compliance on Friday. Mr Blix said the decision by Baghdad to agree to the destruction of its al-Samoud missiles was "a significant piece of disarmament".

Lieutenant-General Amer al-Saadi, Saddam Hussein's chief weapons adviser, saidthe process would be stopped if America and Britain looked likely to embark on a war with UN backing. So far, 16 of about 120 have been destroyed.

Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the UN inspectors in Baghdad, said yesterday there had been "signs of co-operation in several areas" from the Iraqis, but he added that Mr Blix would make "an overall assessment of Iraq's co-operation".

The build-up to war continued with senior Pentagon officials saying that American and British warplanes had been destroying Iraqi military installations in preparation for a ground invasion. The Iraqis protested that allied aircraft had recently attacked not only ground-to-air missiles but also ground-to-ground missiles and artillery in the country's two no-fly zones.

The northern and southern no-fly zones, which have not been sanctioned by the UN, were set up by America and Britain in a "humanitarian effort" to protect Shia Muslims and Kurds from President Saddam's forces.

The Iraqi offer on Sunday to present a report on VX gas and anthrax came within hours of senior British government officials meeting Dimitri Perricos, head of the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission (Unmovic). The Iraqis, who insisted they had destroyed the agents at the end of the Gulf War, want "quantitative verification" from the UN inspectors that this has been done.

Mr Blix has criticised Baghdad for failing to provide documentation to support the claim that theagents had been destroyed. The UN inspectors said they were sceptical that Iraq had sufficient documentation to prove the agents had been destroyed.

But Lieutenant-General Saadi said that recent excavations at sites near Baghdad would help to prove that Iraq had destroyed the substances. Mr Ueki said: "Iraq will provide a report on the agents. There are difficulties in quantifying such amounts, but we will see that they produce a more detailed report."