A team of missile inspectors from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) paid their unannounced visit to the Al Mamoun Plant of the Al Rasheed Company, some 60 km south of Baghdad.

"The team tagged several declared equipment, which Iraq had manufactured between 1998 and 2002," Ueki said.

A UNMOVIC multi-disciplinary team drove more than 200 km west of Baghdad to inspect a former ammunitions depot used as a chemical weapons storage facility before the 1991 Gulf War and an adjacent area used in the 1980s for chemical weapons tests.

Both sites, located in the middle of the desert, had been visited by the UN Special Commission, the previous disarmament regime which was operational between 1991 and 1998.

Meanwhile, some UNMOVIC chemical experts went to the Al Basil Narawan, some 20 km east of Baghdad.

This facility is part of the Al Basil Center which produces several chemicals, including sodium carbonates, Ueki said.

The weapons experts resumed their hunting for prohibited weapons of mass destruction in Iraq on Nov. 27 after a four-year suspension.

There are currently 110 UN arms inspectors in Iraq, 100 of whom are from the UNMOVIC and 10 from the IAEA.

The inspection team will present their report on Iraq's weapons programs to the UN Security Council before the Jan. 27 deadline.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2003)