UN inspectors visit ice-making factory, defunct chlorine plant

United Nations inspectors today continued their probe for evidence of illegal weapons in Iraq, visiting an ice-making factory and a defunct chlorine plant outside of Baghdad.

Experts from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) inspected a farm and visited an ice-making factory near As Suwayrah, approximately 50 kilometres southeast of Baghdad. Multi-frequency electromagnetic detectors were used to survey several areas of the farm, a spokesman for the Commission said in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, an UNMOVIC chemical team inspected Falluja I, a storage area for farm products and largely deserted, and Falluja II, a site that comprises the headquarters of the Al-Tariq Company and a factory area. The major activity at this location is the production of phenol and chlorine, although the chlorine plant is currently inoperative, according to spokesman Hiro Ueki.

In other news, UNMOVIC Executive Chairman Hans Blix met today in Paris with President Jacques Chirac of France. He then travelled to the United Kingdom, where he is meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mr. Blix will then leave from London for Cyprus before heading to Baghdad this weekend with Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for talks with Iraqi officials.