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U.N. translates Iraq VX report
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As U.N. officials translate a 25-page technical report on Iraq's VX nerve agent program, Iraq Saturday continued to destroy its arsenal of al-Samoud 2 missiles, a U.N. spokesman said. Iraq faxed the VX report -- written partly in English and partly in Arabic -- to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix in New York Friday, and a copy of the letter was also turned over to U.N. inspectors in Baghdad, said Mohammed Aldouri, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations. U.N. officials are expecting additional documentation on Iraq's anthrax program, as well, according to the U.N. spokesman in Baghdad. "Exactly what it contains, I cannot tell you. But they have followed up on their promise that it would come," Blix said. Translating the document will take a "few days," he said. Aldouri said the documents were highly technical and that he could not provide details about their content. He said they were part of an effort by Iraq to demonstrate "that Iraq is really clean of any mass destruction weapons." Meanwhile, only 60 weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission remain in Iraq, the U.N. spokesman said, as well as 100 support staff members. Five inspection teams headed out Saturday, including the UNMOVIC inspectors at Al Taji to oversee the ongoing destruction of Iraq's al-Samoud 2 missiles. It is not clear how many of the weapons are scheduled to be dismantled Saturday. Iraq destroyed four more of its banned al-Samoud 2 missiles Friday, a U.N. official said, bringing the total number of missiles destroyed since March 1 to 65. Iraq started with an estimated 100 to 120 of the missiles. The missiles, not counted in Iraq's report to the United Nations last December, exceed the 93 mile (150 km) limit set by the United Nations. The 12,000-page report was to be a complete record of Iraq's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs -- what it has and how it destroyed older stockpiles. U.N. weapons inspectors also oversaw the destruction of seven warheads Friday. Iraq has now destroyed 42 such warheads. Earlier in the week, Iraq had said it would send a report to weapons inspectors accounting for VX and anthrax stockpiles that the Iraqis claim were destroyed after the 1991 Gulf War. U.N. inspectors have said that Iraq has not provided sufficient evidence to prove that the materials were actually destroyed. As much as 1,000 tons of VX are unaccounted for, and Iraq has said it cannot account for as much as 2,245 gallons (8,500 liters) of anthrax. The United States and Britain insist that Iraq still maintains stockpiles of VX, a deadly nerve agent, and anthrax. Also Saturday, thousands of demostrators flooded the streets of Baghdad showing support for the Iraqi leadership and denouncing the United States.
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