Iraq turns over two bombs to Blix
UNITED NATIONS - Iraq has offered its first signs of 'substantive cooperation' by turning up two bombs, one possibly filled with a biological agent, UN weapons inspections chief Hans Blix said.
The offer came as Canada submitted a compromise proposal designed to bridge the gap between the United States and France at the Security Council.
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Mr Blix said on Tuesday that he has received eight letters from Iraq in the last several days with information on past weapons programmes, including the recent discovery of two R-400 aerial bombs at a site where Iraq had disposed of biological weapons before.
One of them is filled with 'a liquid that appears to be biological'. He said it would be tested soon.
In a letter delivered to Mr Blix over the weekend, Iraqi authorities said they recently discovered handwritten documents about the disposal of prohibited items in 1991.
'There are pieces of evidence that are coming forward but we still have to see this evidence,' he said.
He added that he regarded the disclosures as 'positive' steps by Iraq, which he said had previously only offered help with the inspections process, not substance.
'This is cooperation on substance,' the inspections chief said. 'Substance is if you find weapons, you can destroy it, if you find documents it may constitute evidence. That's not process.'
The White House rejected Iraq's sudden weapons revelations as too little, too late.
'I suspect we'll see him playing games. The world will say disarm and he will all of a sudden find a weapon that he claimed he didn't have,' President George W. Bush told reporters after a meeting with the National Economic Council.
Meanwhile, the Security Council remains deeply divided on whether inspectors have had an adequate chance to rid Iraq of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons along with the bombs and missiles designed to deliver them.
Canada, a non-council member, has distributed a compromise plan whereby Iraq would be given a March 28 deadline to show it was complying with UN disarmament demands or face the possibility of war. --Los Angeles Times, AP
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