U.S. Rips Iraqi Nuclear Report : Weaponry: Hussein tries to hide the truth about program, the Administration charges.

The Bush Administration on Tuesday denounced as unacceptable and misleading Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s report to the United Nations claiming that his country’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

In the first detailed U.S. analysis of the 29-page Iraqi report, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said Hussein made “significant omissions and discrepancies” intended to hide the truth about the program, which Washington considers to be an effort to develop a nuclear bomb.

“Statements Iraq makes about the extent of its capabilities do not comport with scientific data that we have about Iraq’s program,” Tutwiler said. “It is imperative that Iraq fully declare all of its nuclear-weapons-related activities and provide immediate, complete and unconditional access” to U.N. inspectors.

In the report submitted Sunday to the United Nations, Iraq admitted possessing uranium-enrichment equipment that could be used for nuclear weapons. However, the report said, Iraqi efforts to enrich uranium have fallen far short of levels needed to produce a bomb.

Hussein reluctantly agreed to show U.N. inspectors all of Iraq’s nuclear facilities, although he maintained that his country had valid “national security reasons” for earlier attempts to conceal some equipment.

“That is something that we find totally unacceptable,” Tutwiler said. “The fact is that Iraq had an unsafeguarded, covert uranium-enrichment program that it hid . . . from the inspection team. Iraq says it has developed levels of uranium enrichment up to 4%. Our own assessment suggests this is not an accurate accounting of Iraq’s capabilities.”

Nevertheless, Tutwiler said the report is a step forward.

“I’m not going to say that giving 29 pages worth of information is irrelevant,” she said. “Obviously, it helps the investigative team there. . . . What we’re saying is that we still find discrepancies and shortcomings even after this 29-page letter, based on what we know through our own analysis.”

In Baghdad, wire services reported that Iraq allowed U.N. inspectors Tuesday to examine equipment for enriching uranium at one site.

Administration officials have suggested privately that unless Hussein opens his nuclear program to inspection and permits the United Nations to destroy weapons-related facilities, the United States might use military force to eliminate them.

American troops in the region have dwindled to 44,000--less than 10% of their wartime peak--making a resumption of ground operations against Iraq unlikely.

But Pentagon officials said the United States continues to maintain major military assets in the region. For instance, there are two U.S. aircraft carriers, with more than 100 combat aircraft, within striking range of Iraq. And at least one squadron of the Air Force’s F-117 Stealth fighters remains in the Persian Gulf theater.

Officials cautioned, however, that a strike against all the surviving components of Iraq’s nuclear program, which are believed to be scattered throughout the country, would be massive and costly.

Iraq’s letter, obtained by The Times at the United Nations, complains that U.S. warplanes bombed two nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel stockpiles during the war.

The report said the bombing was carried out “without concern for the danger of a serious nuclear accident which could cause extensive harm to the population and to the environment of the region.”

It also stated that three uranium-purification facilities were destroyed and two damaged during the war and that two uranium-enrichment laboratories were destroyed and a third was damaged. It claimed that no significant quantity of enriched uranium was prepared at the damaged facility.

Meanwhile, President Bush, rankled by what he described as “revisionist” criticism of his decision not to pursue Hussein to Baghdad, defended his decision to end the ground war after 100 hours last winter.

“I don’t think that even given hindsight, that I would say we should have done something different . . . because what I foresee would have been marching into Baghdad, coalition forces getting sniped and maybe not finding Saddam Hussein and being bogged down in an urban guerrilla warfare,” Bush said in an interview with a group of foreign correspondents based in Washington.

“Now, how do I feel about Saddam Hussein today?” Bush said. “Do I think he’s a liar? Do I think he’s broken his word over and over again? Yes. Will we ever have normal relations with this country as long as he’s there? No.”

In a related development, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Tuesday that the Middle East should be made an area free of weapons of mass destruction.

Meeting in Paris, the five issued a communique saying all Mideast countries should accept international controls on their nuclear activities and that there should be a ban on importing and producing components needed for nuclear weapons.

Times staff writers Melissa Healy in Washington and John J. Goldman at the United Nations contributed to this story.