Iraq says UN inspector Butler's statements "unobjective"

Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz on Saturday accused the chief UN arms inspector Richard Butler of making "unobjective" statements about the information gathered during his visit to Iraq.

In remarks reported by Iraqi TV, he said Butler had told the Security Council that he had reason to believe that banned materials were hidden in presidential and sovereign sites.

"The fact is that in 1996 and 1997 and until the latest meeting with Butler, the inspection teams held 119 inspection operations on sites connected with national security based on information to which Butler alluded, but they did not find any concealed thing, as he alleged," it quoted Aziz as saying.

"During our meeting in Baghdad, I asked him: Is not this enough for you to draw the conclusion that the information on which you based the inspection operations is trivial and misleading? I also reminded him of what was published in a British newspaper on a meeting held between the Mosad and the Special Commission to provide the commission with such information," Aziz said.

"It is regrettable that Mr Butler is unobjective in his remarks, citing inaccurate information.

Such remarks serve the US plot which aims at fabricating escalation.

"Our decision to videotape the talks was very appropriate.

Moreover, the presence of Russian, French, and British representatives at the talks is very useful in unravelling the facts," he said, according to the television.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.