UN plans to seal Iraqi sites

UN inspectors plan to put seals on two Iraqi missile test sites to prevent their usage until Baghdad permits the installation of cameras to monitor them, Reuter reports from New York.

Rolf Ekeus, head of the UN special commission in charge of scrapping Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, said the seals would be put on the test sites by an inspection team going to Baghdad tomorrow. Iraq has refused to allow weapons inspectors to install cameras to monitor two sites where Baghdad is permitted to test rocket motors for short-range missiles. But Mr Ekeus fears the sites could be used for long-range missile testing.

The Iraqi authorities, in belated compliance with a demand from the United Nations, have finished destroying equipment for making chemical weapons, a senior UN weapons inspector said yesterday.