Top UN arms officials delivered tough criticism on Iraq's record of cooperation but said they had uncovered no "smoking guns" showing Baghdad had resumed clandestine weapons of mass destruction programs.
Inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei told the UN Security Council on Thursday Iraq had "failed to answer a great many questions" in its 12,000-page arms declaration submitted a month ago.
"The overall impression is that it is rich in volume but poor in new information about weapons issues and practically devoid of new evidence," said Blix, executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.
But the inability of the inspectors to obtain concrete evidence of new weapons activities complicated the Bush administration's drive to convince skeptical international opinion of the need to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.
Instead Blix and ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as several Security Council members urged patience, saying it could take months before definitive conclusions could be reached.
"Inspections should continue and for that reason there are no grounds for military action," said Germany's UN ambassador, Gunter Pleuger.
Blix and ElBaradei go to Baghdad Jan. 18 to Jan. 20 to confront Iraq about missing data and to demand a full list of Iraqi scientists they can interview.
Their teams are expected to interview experts next week but Blix refused to confirm reports some of the scientists would be going to Cyprus for such talks.
A clear effort was made by Britain, the closest US ally, to lower expectations that the next crucial UN inspection report on Jan. 27 could be a trigger for war. Some Bush administration officials have viewed that date as a potential moment of decision on whether Iraq's cooperation has been sufficient to head off military action.
"We're are asking [inspectors] to step up the intensity of what they are doing," said British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock.
"So by definition the 27th of January won't necessarily produce anything new or dramatic," Greenstock said. "So my advice is: calm down."
Inspections resumed late last year after the US pressed the UN to pass a resolution demanding Iraq account for any nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programs.
The Bush administration, which says Iraq's weapons programs are a threat to the US and its allies, has overseen a massive military buildup in the region and threatened to disarm Iraq by force if Saddam does not comply with the resolution.
On Thursday, US officials concentrated on Blix's criticism and insisted the report had not changed anything.
"The problem with guns that are hidden is you can't see their smoke," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington. "We know for a fact that there are weapons there."
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