Britain will take a "sceptical" approach to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's arms dossier but will not rush into judgment, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today.
He said the 12,000-page document delivered to the United Nations was now being subjected to a "thorough analysis".
"We are not going to be rushed into a judgment. We want to resolve the Iraq crisis peacefully through Iraq's compliance with the Security Council resolution," he said. "But we of course take a sceptical approach to Iraq's response given Saddam's record of mendacity."
He went on to say that when the UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 they had listed among Saddam's weapons of mass destruction or components hundreds of tonnes of nerve agents and other agents and thousands of tonnes of munitions capable of delivering them.
"What has happened to this weaponry?" asked Mr Straw. "This can be resolved peacefully but only if Saddam Hussein chooses at last to comply with the UN."
Mr Straw said the decision to give the dossier to the US government for "secure copying" had been agreed by the Security Council and was a prudent move to ensure material which might be of use to the "proliferators" of weaponry was not available to them.
PA