High-tech weapons experts gear up for first inspections

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- International arms inspectors, "fully conscious" of their responsibility, are ready to fan out over Iraq with the latest detection gear in search of mobile labs, underground factories or other signs the Iraqis are still committed to the deadliest of weapons, top inspectors said Tuesday.

The U.N. team mounts its first field missions Wednesday in what is expected to be months of difficult, detailed inspections of hundreds of Iraqi sites. Its first targets will be installations inspected and "neutralized" in the 1990s.

The monitors are back after a four-year break under a new mandate from the U.N. Security Council to test the Baghdad government's contention that it has no arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, or programs to build them.

Earlier teams of U.N. experts, in seven years' work ending in 1998, destroyed large amounts of chemical and biological armaments and longer-range missiles forbidden to Iraq by U.N. resolutions after the Gulf War, in which an Iraqi invasion force was driven from Kuwait. The inspectors also dismantled Iraq's nuclear weapons program before it could build a bomb.

Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix says, however, it's "an open question" whether the Iraqis retained some weapons -- especially chemical. British and U.S. leaders say they're sure Iraq has such arms, and suspect it also is rebuilding production programs.

A working group of 17 inspectors landed in Baghdad on Monday, the first contingent of some 100 who will be operating in Iraq at any one time by year's end.

The two local operational chiefs met with reporters in Baghdad on Tuesday, and said they have clear -- if secret -- game plans for the months ahead.

"We are fully conscious of the responsibility we have on our shoulders," said Jacques Baute of the nuclear watchdog agency.

Demetrius Perricos, the UNMOVIC team leader, was asked whether the arms monitors will look for suspected truck-borne biological weapons laboratories. A recent U.S. intelligence report said an Iraqi document indicated Baghdad "was interested in developing mobile fermentation units" for biological weapons.

This is "not something we find incredible," Perricos said.

"We have some plans," he said. He noted inspectors have the right to stop suspect vehicles on Iraqi roads, but he wouldn't discuss the plans further.

As for possible buried storage or production sites, "we have a strategy for underground facilities" using ground-penetrating radar, Perricos said.

Building a nuclear bomb requires a huge infrastructure, and the IAEA inspectors of the 1990s were able to find and destroy that Iraqi technology. Now, said agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming, "we'll be looking for signs of renewed nuclear activity in any way, shape or form."

The U.N. inspectors are to report to the Security Council by late January on their initial round of inspections, including whether the Iraqis have been fully cooperative.