United Nations weapons inspectors have resumed the destruction of banned Al Samoud II missiles today at the Iraqi al-Taji military compound.
The destruction process started yesterday, when bulldozers crushed four Al Samoud II missiles, meeting a UN demand in an attempt to prevent a devastating US-led attack.
However, Washington dismissed the move and has continued to push for war insisting on a regime change if war is to be avoided.
European leaders praised the latest moves, but White House spokeswoman Merci Viana said Iraq's decision was "part of its game of deception". Spokesman Ari Fleischer said that to avoid a war, Iraq needed not only to disarm, but must also to change its leadership
.Mr Odai al-Taie, an Iraqi information ministry official, said the "destruction of six missiles started at 9am at al-Taji," the same site north of Baghdad where yesterday's destruction was carried out.
A second casting chamber used in the manufacture of the missiles is also due to be destroyed today, he said. UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said inspectors also returned today to al-Aziziya, an abandoned helicopter airfield 60 miles south-east of Baghdad, where Iraq says it destroyed R-400 bombs filled with biological weapons in 1991, and took samples of some of the bombs that were found intact.
Another team of inspectors headed to al-Muthana, 90 miles north of Baghdad, where they had been destroying 155mm artillery shells filled with mustard gas, Ueki said. Top inspector Demetrius Perricos said yesterday that "the mustard has been completely destroyed".
Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed al-Douri, said in New York: "War is the worst thing, and we are trying to do whatever we can to avoid war so we are doing our utmost to co-operate.".
The destruction of the Al Samoud II missiles was ordered by chief inspector Hans Blix, who said Iraq had to begin the destruction by yesterday. In a sprawling military complex on a desert plain just north of Baghdad, UN weapons inspectors watched yesterday as Iraqi workers tried to crush an Al Samoud II missile, then had to wait for bigger bulldozers to finish the job.
"They built it very strong," joked Perricos, who is Blix's deputy. Perricos, who travelled to Baghdad to work out the last-minute details on destruction, held technical discussions with the Iraqis before the operation began. He would hold more talks today about stores of anthrax and VX that Iraq says it destroyed, he said. Perricos said he had agreed on a timetable of "a few days or a very short few weeks" to destroy Iraq's 100-plus missiles - as well as components, software and machines used to make them. Perricos said the pace would soon accelerate.
The missiles' warheads were removed and will be destroyed at a safer site. AP