Three more Iraqi scientists speak to U.N. inspectors

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Three more Iraqi scientists gave private interviews to U.N. weapons inspectors Friday.

Two of them -- a senior scientist and a missile expert -- were interviewed by the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the other -- a chemical engineer -- by the nuclear watchdog agency, the commission said in a brief statement.

The commission, or UNMOVIC, is in charge of searching for chemical and biological weapons and any long-range missiles that Iraq may be hiding.

The interview with the senior scientist lasted approximately four hours while the sessions with the missile expert and the chemical engineer each lasted about 2 1/2 hours, the commission said.

Friday's sessions came a day after an Iraqi scientist submitted to a private interview with weapons monitors for the first time, meeting a key U.N. demand.

The additional interviews were announced on the eve of the arrival of top U.N. inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who have insisted that Iraq must provide much more cooperation in order to stave off a U.S.-led attack.

Such private interviews have been among the biggest obstacles to progress in the U.N. inspection program. Iraq had insisted it encouraged its experts to cooperate and that the scientists themselves refused to submit.

U.S. officials had been pressing for interviews without the presence of an Iraqi official, hoping this would encourage scientists to be more forthcoming about Iraqi illegal weapons programs.

Friday's interviews were first announced by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry and later confirmed by UNMOVIC.