'Last' Blix report raises questions

Blix is due to retire at the end of the month

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has submitted what is likely to be his last report on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before leaving the post later this month.

Although UN teams returned to Iraq last November after a four-year absence, their mission was halted and they were withdrawn just before US-led forces invaded Iraq in March.

In his latest report - which covers the last three months - Mr Blix said his inspectors had found no evidence to show that former President Saddam Hussein had been running programmes to build weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

However there were still many questions to be answered, said Mr Blix who was charged with finding out whether Iraq still possessed WMD.

Mr Blix, who is in his mid-70s, has appealed to the Security Council to continue the inspectors' mission, saying teams could resume work within two weeks if needed.

The Swede, who came out of retirement in 2000 after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked him to head the UN's weapons inspectors, is due to leave when his contract expires at the end of June, and has said he will not seek a renewal.

Widening search

The BBC's Greg Barrow at the UN in New York says there are no great surprises in Mr Blix's latest document - it is more an account of the unanswered questions that remain about whether Iraq did indeed possess an illegal weapons programme prior to the military action.

Inspectors are ready to go back, says Blix

The report states that while UN inspectors were in Iraq they did not discover evidence of the continuation or resumption of WMD programmes.

However, it adds that despite an improvement in Iraqi co-operation earlier this year, little progress was made in accounting for many illegal weapons that Iraq said it had destroyed.

Mr Blix's report is neither a ringing endorsement for the UK and US Governments as they try to defend the reasoning behind the invasion of Iraq, nor is it a vindication for those who argue that Baghdad had destroyed all of its WMD, our correspondent says.

The Security Council is due to consider the report on Thursday.

The US has so far rejected calls for the return of UN inspectors to hunt for WMD.

However Pentagon officials announced last Friday that they were widening their search for such weapons in Iraq.

Instead of methodically visiting sites - which has so far produced no results - inspectors will also be interviewing low-ranking officials and relying on interrogations of alleged war criminals, they said.