Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=12/21/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / INSPECTORS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-297681

BYLINE=TETIANA ANDERSON

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: As United Nations inspectors continued Saturday to look for evidence Iraq might have weapons of mass destruction, voices in the region against a possible war are becoming louder. Tetiana Anderson has more from Cairo.

TEXT: As Iraqi newspapers again slammed the United States in their Saturday editions for being unjust propagators of war, U-N weapons inspectors continued their mission.

Inspectors searching for banned weapons or evidence of them probed several sites in and around Baghdad including the al Nasr al Azeem engineering plant and Al Raya, a military factory.

The Associated Press reported that the U-N team visited for the third day in a row a complex involved in the final stages of Iraq's development of a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, after a month-long government imposed ban on production, Bebel, the newspaper of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son, was back Saturday. One western news agency said the newspaper wrote that in its current position, Iraq has no choice but aggression. Another source said Bebel had called President Bush bloodthirsty and said he was beating the drums of war.

At the same time, the official Iraqi news agency I-N-A reported that Saddam Hussein had met with his top advisers to discuss regional and international developments, but no details were disclosed.

In Cairo on Saturday, more than 500 people demonstrated outside the Qatari embassy to protest U-S use of the Gulf State as a possible launch pad for a strike on Iraq.

U-N inspectors resumed their work in Iraq on November 27th, and they now number more than 100. (Signed)

NEB/TA/ALW/RH