N-bomb equipment 'lost in Iraq'

By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor, Evening
Standard

Nuclear bomb- making equipment could end up in the
hands of terrorists because of the chaos in Iraq, a
United Nations watchdog has warned.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said
that high-precision tools and materials had gone
missing from the country since the war ended.

The claims are sure to be seized on by anti-war MPs
today as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw faces Commons
questions on the Iraq Survey Group's failure to find
weapons.

Last night backbenchers confronted Tony Blair to
demand a proper apology for the Government's misuse of
intelligence in the run-up to war. The UN agency's
criticism will be embarrassing to Mr Blair as he has
said all along that the main reason for war was to
prevent possible proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.

The IAEA said that new satellite images showed that
entire buildings in Iraq had been dismantled and
neither the Baghdad government nor Washington appeared
to have noticed.

The buildings once housed equipment that could help a
government or terror group make nuclear bombs,

watchdog said in a report to

Security Council.

Equipment and material helpful in making bombs have

been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and have
disappeared without trace, according to IAEA
directorgeneral Mohamed el Baradei.

It was "concerned about

widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement"

nuclear equipment, he added. The United States barred

return of UN weapons investigators after launching the


on Iraq in March last year, preventing the IAEA from
keeping tabs on hi-tech equipment

materials up to the present

Under anti-proliferation agreementsthe US occupation
authorities which administered Iraq until June, then
the Iraqi interim government that took power at the
end of June, would have to inform the IAEA if they
moved or exported any of that material or equipment.

But no such reports have been received since the
invasion, officials of the watchdog agency said.

UN diplomats said the satellite images could mean the
equipment had been moved to new sites inside Iraq or
stolen.

If stolen, it could end up in the hands of a terrorist
group. " We simply don't know, although we are trying
to get the information," said one UN insider.