A new U.N. nuclear inspection team arrived Saturday to test Saddam Hussein's promise of full cooperation, and another team finished destroying Iraq's last known ballistic missiles.
The team leader, Dimitri Perricos, said his 37-member crew would spend a week investigating reports of a secret cache of nuclear weapons-making equipment and allegations of other nuclear sites.The team's work could resolve questions about the Iraqi president's commitment to give U.N. groups unrestricted access to nuclear sites and equipment. Saddam made the promise in a letter delivered Friday to U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
A previous U.N. team said Iraqi troops barred it from visiting some sites and fired into the air when inspectors began photographing a convoy believed to be carrying a crude device for enriching uranium to weapons-grade quality.
Asked whether the inspectors would seek out the convoy, Perricos said only: "We will address that issue."
In Washington, the White House on Saturday reiterated President Bush's position that he has authority to launch a military strike if Iraq continues to block inspection of suspected nuclear weapons facilities.
But at least one military official said he believed Bush would not act alone.
"I don't think the United States would use force without the sanctioning of the United Nations," said Rear Adm. Philip M. Quast aboard the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier in the gulf. The United States could use the Nimitz in a strike.
"We're certainly one of the options available," said Quast. "There are still nine navies operating in these waters."
Under the cease-fire accord, Saddam promised to cooperate with the United Nations to identify and destroy all nuclear, chemical or biological weapons material and some long-range ballistic missiles.
Most of the ballistic missiles and equipment declared by Iraq was destroyed last week by a 21-member U.N. team led by U.S. Army Col. Douglas Englund.
The team supervised the demolition of 61 Scud missiles, 28 live warheads, 10 mobile launchers, two fixed launchers, nine liquid-fuel transporters and eight missile transport vehicles, Englund said.
The last were destroyed on Saturday.
The missiles, most of them modifications of the Soviet-built Scud, were the type fired at Israel, Saudi Arabia and other gulf states during the war.
Englund said the Iraqis had been cooperative and efficient.
Toward the end of the month, another U.N. team headed by Englund is expected to supervise the elimination of 34 fixed-launch sites and eight supporting factories in western Iraq, he said.