By Irwin Arieff, Reuters, 3/27/03

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UNITED NATIONS -- Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Thursday he had no evidence from U.S.-led forces waging war on Iraq that Baghdad had used any banned weapons of mass destruction.

"So far we have not identified or heard from the allies that anything that was proscribed would have been used," he told reporters.

Blix said there had been reports from Kuwait that Iraq had fired illegal Scud missiles into that neighboring country but he believed these had turned out to be al-Fatah missiles, which do not exceed the permissible U.N. range of 150 kms .

Among those leveling the charges was Kuwait, whose U.N. ambassador, Mohammad Abulhasan, wrote the 15-nation U.N. Security Council Tuesday to complain that Iraq had fired 11 missiles at its oil-rich neighbor to the southeast at the start of the conflict last Thursday.

"At least one (of these) was a Scud missile, which Iraq possesses while continuing to deny so, in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions," his letter said.

But Blix said he had heard from U.S.-led forces "that they have not seen any Scud missiles."

"In the beginning of the conflict there were some statements to the effect that Scud missiles had been sent, and this was later on withdrawn," he said.

"And I have not heard any assertion that there would have been proscribed missiles yet. It may come," he added.

Blix said he was relieved that Iraq had not used prohibited chemical or biological weapons so far in the conflict.

"I didn't think they would do it because, first of all, the world would say that they were liars," he said. Baghdad has denied having any weapons of mass destruction.

"And in the second place, it would also then change, I think, the attitude of the world towards the armed conflict. The skepticism about the armed conflict would, I think, give way to one of greater understanding," he said.

The Security Council ordered Iraq to destroy any weapons of mass destruction after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

U.N. inspectors whose task was to monitor the disarmament were sent back in to Iraq on Nov. 27 after a four-year hiatus.

But the inspectors were pulled out last week, before they could complete their work, after the United States and Britain notified the United Nations of an impending attack on Iraq.