Ban on chemical arms approved

GENEVA (Reuter) - The Conference on Disarmament agreed yesterday to send a treaty banning chemical weapons to the United Nations for approval, despite a last-minute Iranian move which threatened to block it. The decision ended 24 years of negotiations on the pact, which will ban the use, possession and manufacture of chemical arms.

Iran, billing itself as the last victim of chemical attacks during its

1980-88 war with Iraq, said it would veto adoption of the treaty because of fears it might not be fully represented on the body that will police it.