Iraq blasts US on dossier

The US and UK are sceptical about the bulky declaration

Iraq has denounced the United States for taking charge of distribution of the weapons declaration Baghdad made to the United Nations on Saturday.

The foreign ministry accused Washington of "unprecedented blackmail" and warned that Washington could alter its contents.

"This American behaviour aims at manipulating United Nations documents to find cover for aggression against Iraq," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It came shortly after Washington duplicated and handed over copies of the dossier to the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council, sparking complaints from some of the 10 Council members who have been excluded.

The original version remains in the hands of the weapons inspectorate.

Syria - which is not a permanent Council member - has protested against the decision to limit early access to the declaration to China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.

		Iraq navigator: Click here to explore Saddam Hussein's Iraq for yourself.

In Iraq itself, UN weapons inspectors searched at least two new sites near Baghdad on Tuesday as new inspectors continued arriving in the country.

Washington steps in

Reports say several other members of the Council are upset at the extent to which the US took charge of handing out copies to the permanent members, who will edit the versions to be released to other non-nuclear states.

	Iraq's dossier Contains 12,000 pages in Arabic and English covering Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities. 2,100 page nuclear component being studied by IAEA in Vienna. Declaration being examined first by five nuclear powers on Security Council. See also: First failure? Dossier breakdown

Reuters news agency quoted a diplomat as saying he believed the Iraqi declaration listed foreign suppliers which had dealt with Iraq, a potentially embarrassing revelation for Council members and other nations.

Syria's ambassador to the UN, Mikhail Wehbe, said the decision to allow the US principal access was "in contradiction to... every kind of logic in the Security Council".

In a BBC interview, Mr Wehbe expressed fears that the five big powers might claim Iraq was in material breach of UN Resolution 1441 - triggering "serious consequences" - before non-permanent members of the Security Council had even seen the dossier.

The US said it took its action on security grounds.

New inspections

Unmovic inspectors headed for at least two sites near Baghdad on Tuesday:

• a laboratory associated with Iraq's discontinued germ warfare programme in Abu Ghurayb near Baghdad and
• Al-Furat Chemical Industries General Company, which has ties with the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, south of the capital

The BBC's Ben Brown in Baghdad says 25 to 30 new inspectors are arriving on Tuesday as the Unmovic team builds up to its planned full strength of about 100.