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Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix on Monday distributed to the Security Council members a report listing 12 key remaining tasks that Iraq needs to fulfill to prove its complete disarmament.
The 83-page report, produced under UN resolution 1284, was based on dozens of key remaining disarmament issues in the so-called cluster report presented earlier this month.
It came as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered all UN staff, including arms inspectors, humanitarian workers and military observers, to pull out of Iraq in the face of an imminent US-led war on the Arab state.
At the request of France, Germany and Russia, the Security Council was due to meet Wednesday morning at the foreign-ministerial level on the disarmament tasks. At present, it remains unknown how many ministers will attend the gathering.
German Ambassador to the United Nations Gunter Pleuger told reporters earlier Monday that the presentation of the key disarmament tasks provided "a final chance" to get a council consensus on the approach to disarming Iraq.
But with the US-led pro-war camp looking determined to go it alone, the new report could hardly break the current council dilemma on the Iraq issue.
The United States, Britain and Spain on Monday stopped their push for a UN resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq. Later in the day, US President George W. Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a 48-hour ultimatum to leave the country or face war.
The Blix report, a copy of which was made available to Xinhua, covers tasks in three major areas -- banned missiles and related technology, munitions for chemical and biological agents, and drones.
The tasks were selected in accordance with "the level of danger or threat the respective weapon or other Item would pose," Blix said in the report.
The 12 tests listed by Blix are as follows:
Turn over any Scud missiles and associated biological and chemical warheads or explain what happened to them.
Provide information on al-Samoud missile technology and related projects, and present any remaining Fahad missiles.
Present all materials related to missiles capable of going beyond the UN limit of 93 miles (150 km), and their components.
Present any remaining chemical and biological munitions, including aerial bombs, rockets or missile warheads, artillery shells, cluster munitions and production equipment, and provide credible evidence about these programs.
Provide details of any drones or equipment for them, and present any spray tanks or other devices that could be used for chemical or biological warfare.
Present any remaining VX nerve agent and provide credible evidence to support any quantities of VX that were produced, consumed, destroyed or spoiled.
Present any remaining mustard gas and similar credible evidence.
Present any remaining Sarin nerve agent and similar credible evidence.
Present any remaining stocks of anthrax or provide evidence for its destruction and provide information on any work to dry anthrax.
Present any remaining stocks of botulinum toxin, a biological warfare agent, and complete production records since 1989 as well as evidence on the numbers of weapons filled with the toxin.
Present any stocks of undeclared biological warfare agents, and all information on research or production of smallpox after 1972.
Present any banned chemical or biological agents, precursors, missiles, mobile and underground facilities for chemical and biological weapons that have been acquired since 1998 when UN inspectors left Iraq.
(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2003)
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