The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) has continued with its analysis work on Iraq since its withdrawal from the country last March, a UN spokesman said Wednesday.  

The spokesman told a noon briefing that the commission informed the UN Security Council, in its latest quarterly report, that it had continued with its work, including analyzing biological samples and doing technical evaluations of Iraq's Al-Samoud 2 missiles.

The commission said that up through the end of the November, it was not provided with the results of investigations by the US-led Iraq Survey Group, other than a statement made to the public on its interim progress report. The survey group has not given the commission that report, it said.

The commission has continued to store equipment for its activities in Cyprus, as well as some in Baghdad, but its core professional staff has been reduced to 51, a 10 percent reduction since the last quarter, said the UNMOVIC report.

The Security Council will discuss the UNMOVIC report in consultations scheduled for next Monday, according to the spokesman.

UNMOVIC's weapon inspections in Iraq stopped after it withdrew from the country prior to the US-led invasion in March.

UNMOVIC was set up under a Security Council revolution adopted in 1998, to hunt for biological and chemical weapons in Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2003)