UN experts start third week of inspections
( 2002-12-11 15:54 ) (7 )

UN experts scoured a suspected weapons site near Baghdad on Wednesday as their hunt for Iraq's alleged doomsday arsenal picked up pace in its third week.

Teams of inspectors, accompanied by Iraqi officials, drove from their headquarters on the outskirts of the capital to several locations. One team arrived at Karamah site in Taji, 10 km (six miles) north of Baghdad.

It was not immediately clear what they were looking for, but Taji has in the past housed complexes suspected of involvement in Iraq's biological and ballistic missile programmes.

One of the five UN four-wheel-drive cars in the convoy was involved in an accident with a civilian Iraqi car a few hundred metres (yards) from the compound.

The Iraqi car was badly damaged and after the driver protested, the UN car stayed behind while the convoy drove into the facility. Police later arrived at the scene.

The experts fanned out to inspect 10 sites across Iraq on Tuesday, including the suspected centre of Iraq's nuclear program -- a phosphate facility at al-Qaem, 250 miles (400 km) northwest of Baghdad, said to have produced refined uranium ore.

It was the largest one-day operation by UN experts since they resumed inspections on November 27. Al-Qaem is also the furthest they have travelled from Baghdad. The team spent the night at al-Qaem and resumed work on Wednesday.

The number of experts in Iraq rose to about 70 on Tuesday with the arrival of about two dozen inspectors.