UN inspectors set for Iraq return

Teams will check 'nearly daily reports' of looting

United Nations nuclear inspectors are scheduled to arrive back in Iraq this week for the first time since the US-led invasion.

Scientists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will check reports of widespread looting at Iraq's largest nuclear site.

There are no plans yet for them to resume the hunt for banned weapons of mass destruction which was suspended on the eve of war.

The visit follows reports that looters have removed nuclear containers from the sprawling Tuwaitha nuclear facility possibly to store water, fuel or even milk.

Correspondents say there are also fears that stolen items could end up being used to make a "dirty bomb", in which conventional explosives are used to scatter radioactive material over a wide area.

Uranium check

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the inspectors needed to check what had happened since they were last at Tuwaitha, which is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad.

"We don't know the situation there, precisely," he said.

"We've seen almost daily reports of looting at that facility over the last month or more.

"When we get there we will determine how much, if any, has gone missing and what needs to be done to make it secure."

Inspectors will have a limited role

Before the war, the Tuwaitha site held two tons of low-grade enriched uranium and several tons of natural uranium. A storage facility near the site held several hundred other radiological sources.

The IAEA will check stocks of enriched uranium and "yellow cake", or processed mined uranium, against its detailed inventory lists.

But it has only been authorised to check whether nuclear material under IAEA seal since 1991 remains safe and accounted for and that Iraq is abiding by its obligations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

The inspectors are not authorised to look at nuclear health and safety issues.

"The IAEA was informed by the United States that at this stage, the occupying powers are responsible for the health and safety of the Iraqi people, including nuclear health and safety issues," Mr Gwozdecky said.

"The IAEA stands ready, if requested, to provide assistance in these areas."

Strained ties

The International Atomic Energy Agency wrote a letter to Washington in early May requesting access to nuclear sites in Iraq after reports of looting initially surfaced.

It had previously urgently recommended that Tuwaitha and facilities at Baghdad be given protection on 11 April.

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei expressed frustration that more attention had not been paid to securing such sites.

It was a further souring of relations already strained by the ejection of UN inspectors from Iraq before they had declared their mission over.

It appeared that US soldiers had been sent to some sites but were unwilling or unable to seal them off.