Butler outlines long-term UN monitoring for Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26: The top UN arms inspector on Monday outlined long-term monitoring proposals for Iraq that could be implemented if the UN Security Council decides to turn the page on Iraqi disarmament in order to lift sanctions, reports AFP.

In a report to the UN Security Council, UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) Chairman Richard Butler warned that an enhanced verification effort in the absence of total disarmament of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction would require a substantial increase in personnel and financing.

Key extracts of the 200-page report and its annexes were obtained by AFP.

Butler acknowledged that his review "takes into account the possibility that the full accounting of Iraq's prescribed weapons will not be achieved."

He listed priority areas on which Iraq has failed to fully account for its weapons of mass destruction programmes, including the lethal chemical agent VX, biological warheads, missiles propellant, artillery shells filled with mustard gas and aerial bombs.

"These remaining issues must be resolved," said Butler.

Russia, which is demanding UNSCOM's replacement by a new body, blocked the report's release as an official document during Monday's closed-door council session focusing on how to deal with Iraqi disarmament in the aftermath of last month's air strikes on Iraq, diplomats said.

"There is no consensus in the Security Council to have something from UNSCOM," Russian ambassador Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

As a result, the report remains an informal document.

US ambassador Peter Burleigh said that the Security Council should consider the UNSCOM report, which also provide a four-page paper produced by the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA on Friday.

The IAEA recommended that technical inspections be carried out by "competent international agencies rather than subsidiaries of the security council," such as UNSCOM.

The IAEA is responsible for monitoring Iraqi compliance in dismantling its suspect nuclear programme, while UNSCOM verifies the destruction of Iraqi chemical, biological and long-range missiles.

Butler's report detailed Iraq's determined efforts to thwart the UN inspectors through organised concealment operations.

He noted that the special security services, which also protect Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, were responsible for the concealment which had been directed in its early days by Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz.

China, Russia and France maintain that following the US and British air strikes, the UN Security Council should lift the sanctions which are linked to Iraqi disarmament and establish a new body to ensure that Iraq does not reconstitute weapons of mass destruction.

The Security Council is expected to resume discussions on Wednesday on Canadian proposals for disarmament and humanitarian reviews on Iraq, in an attempt to rebuild the council's consensus which was shattered by the air strikes.

Butler pointed out in his report that an enhanced long-term verification regime would require Iraq cooperation, as well as access and information.

Butler's last report to the council on December 15 on Iraq's failure to provide full cooperation prompted the US and British air strikes from December 16-19.