Iraq Challenges Blair to Check Nuclear Weapons Program

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 29, 2002

Iraq Challenges Blair to Check Nuclear Weapons Program

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Iraq challenged on Sunday British Prime Minister Tony Blair's allegation that it was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, saying Baghdad was still willing to receive a British fact-finding delegation, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

"If the British prime minister wants to prove the reality of hisallegations, the offer is still valid and we challenge him once again to present one proof," an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by INA.

The unidentified spokesman accused Blair of deliberately dodgingan offer made by Baghdad on February 28 to receive a British delegation to "show us how and where Iraq tries to produce such weapons."

Blair has been a close ally of US President George W. Bush, who labelled Iraq as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and theDemocratic People's Republic of Korea, and accused them of developing weapons of mass destruction.

Blair earlier this month warned that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's weapons program constitutes a "gathering threat" and preemptive measures should be taken to counter it.

The United States and Britain have been demanding Iraq allow thearms inspectors back after an absence of more than three years.

U.N. arms inspectors left Iraq on the eve of the US-Britain air war against Baghdad in December 1998 and have since not been allowed back.

In the face of US threats, Iraq has remained defiant, arguing that its weapons of mass destruction have already been destroyed and, therefore, the return of the arms inspectors to Iraq is unnecessary.

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