U.N. Team Steps Up Pace of Inspections in Iraq

U.N. weapons inspectors pounced on about a dozen Iraqi sites Saturday, including rooms at an infectious disease center where they were denied access a day earlier.

“Today was probably the single largest” group of sites inspected since the investigators returned to Iraq on Nov. 27, said Hiro Ueki, a spokesman for the United Nations program. He said 70 sites have been visited.

As Iraqi dissidents met in London to begin planning a future without Saddam Hussein, the U.S. sent a fresh signal that it was preparing for possible war with Iraq when the Defense Department announced that it had ordered an additional 27,000 reservists to prepare for active duty. Units ranging from Navy port workers to Army engineers were told to be ready to be called up early next year.

Meanwhile, Iraq said U.S. and British warplanes attacked civilian targets in the southern part of the country Saturday, but the U.S. military said the planes, policing “no-fly zones,” had targeted Iraqi air defense facilities.

An additional 15 inspectors arrived Saturday in Iraq, bringing the total to 113 since the U.N. resumed looking for evidence of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs after a four-year hiatus.

Among the sites examined was the main Iraqi nuclear center and a Scud missile facility used to make bomb casings for chemical weapons during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Inspectors revisited the Communicable Disease Control Center, where they had been blocked Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. They said there were no signs of seal-tampering and inspectors examined the facility for an hour.

On Saturday, chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix formally asked Iraq to identify scientists who can be interviewed. Under a Nov. 8 Security Council resolution, the inspectors have the right to interview in private anyone who might know details of Iraq’s weapons programs.

Also Saturday, Kuwait’s parliament met in special session and rejected an apology from Hussein for the 1990-91 occupation of the oil-rich emirate, saying it was a doomed attempt to stir unrest in the key U.S. ally. Hussein issued a letter Dec. 7 that apologized for the invasion but urged Kuwaitis to struggle against foreign armies -- seen as a reference to the thousands of U.S. troops training in Kuwait.