U.N. inspectors check mobile laboratories

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Top U.N. officials warned Iraq on Saturday that it is running out of time to cooperate and avoid war, and arms inspectors examined the type of mobile lab the United States says could be used to make biological weapons.

America's top general, meanwhile, said there's still time for Iraq to come clean about its banned weapons programs and avoid an attack.

With Washington increasing pressure on Iraq, U.N. teams visited at least five locations Saturday, including Trade Ministry food warehouses in central Baghdad. The team examined at least two refrigerator trucks and a trailer, which the site manager, Nawal Nafa'a Fotohi, said were mobile food testing labs.

Such labs are of particular interest because U.S. intelligence officials believe Iraq may want to develop mobile "fermentation units" to manufacture biological weapons. U.N. officials had said inspectors would be looking for biological weapons laboratories on trucks.

Fotohi insisted the labs were used to make sure government food rations were safe, and inspectors would not say if they found anything suspicious. "We are not afraid of anything and we have nothing to hide," Fotohi said.

Other teams visited Baghdad University's science college and the University of Kufa, 125 miles south of the Iraqi capital, according to witnesses and Information Ministry officials.

Inspectors also visited the Al-Tuwaitha complex, nine miles south of Baghdad, which was at the heart of Iraq's former nuclear program, and the chemical and explosives QaQa Company, 16 miles south of Baghdad.

The U.N. teams returned to Iraq in November after a four-year hiatus to determine if President Saddam Hussein still holds weapons of mass destruction. Saddam denies Iraq still has such weapons, which were banned at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. The United States and Britain don't believe him and have threatened to disarm Iraq by force if he does not give up those weapons.

Saddam, meanwhile, said Saturday that any war against the United States would be decided on the ground, but warned army commanders that Iraqi forces could be hurt by Washington's abilities to fight "from afar."

U.N. inspectors have complained that Iraq failed to disclose required details of its weapons programs in a 12,000-page declaration submitted in December. U.S. officials maintain that Iraq's failure to submit a complete report is evidence that Saddam has no intention of complying with orders to disarm.

The United States and Britain are moving ships, planes and tens of thousands of troops to the Gulf to reinforce warnings to Baghdad.

Top U.N. inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei were to travel to Baghdad today to warn Iraq that time is running out. They will report to the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 27.

In an interview with CNN in Cyprus, ElBaradei said he and Blix would be "making a last ditch effort" to convince Iraq "to give us what we need" before they report to the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 27.

"Iraq has not cooperated sufficiently with the United Nations weapons inspectors, and we will impress the seriousness of the situation to them," Blix told reporters Saturday in Cyprus. "The world would like to be assured that Iraq is rid of weapons of mass destruction. Until we, the inspectors, have been convinced of that we cannot so report to the Security Council."

U.N. officials have said inspectors have found no conclusive evidence Iraq is holding illegal weapons. However, suspicions were raised by the discovery Thursday of 12 empty warheads adapted for use as chemical weapons and numerous documents found at the home of an Iraqi physicist.

The physicist, Faleh Hassan, said the documents were from his private research projects and students' theses. He accused the inspectors of "Mafia-like" tactics.

However, ElBaradei said the documents appeared to be related to the use of lasers to enrich uranium, possibly for nuclear weapons. ElBaradei said that if the Iraqis had not disclosed information contained in the documents, "it obviously doesn't show the transparency we've been preaching."

In Rome, America's top general insisted Saturday that Jan. 27 was not a deadline for war and that Iraq could still avoid conflict by cooperating with the United Nations.

"Certainly there has been no decision on the U.S. part for conflict in Iraq," Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. "There is no doubt Iraq still has chemical and biological weapons and a great interest in nuclear weapons."

Myers was to meet with Turkey's top general in Ankara on Monday. He refused to comment on reports from Turkey that the United States is considering scaling back its request to base tens of thousands of soldiers in that strategic NATO nation for a possible attack on Iraq.

Anti-war sentiment is strong in predominantly Muslim Turkey and among America's European allies, who have been urging the Bush Administration to give the inspectors more time to complete their work and avoid an imminent war.

Protesters rallied by the thousands Saturday in Washington and in cities around the world to demand that the United States back down from the threat of war. Many of the rallies, however, drew modest crowds of a few thousand rather than the huge marches common during the Vietnam War a generation ago.