BAGHDAD, Dec 4: Iraq said on Wednesday the declaration it would hand to the UN will describe its biological, chemical, missile and nuclear technologies, but will not admit to having weapons of mass destruction.

“The declaration will repeat that in Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction,” Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, said at a news conference.

Iraq’s denial that it possesses any such weapons puts it on a direct collision course with the United States, which insists it knows Iraq has them, demands a full and frank confession from Baghdad and warns it will disarm Iraq by force if necessary.

“It will be a huge declaration. Of course it contains new elements,” Amin added. Sunday is the deadline for the statement to the UN, and Iraq has said it will supply it on Saturday.

“Those new elements are with regard to new sites and new activities that were conducted during the absence of the inspectors and those activities are dual-use activities.”

UN weapons experts last week resumed inspections of sites in Iraq after leaving in 1998 complaining Iraqi authorities were obstructing them.

“Dual-use” refers to technology with both civilian and military applications. Amin added that the statement “covers biological, chemical and missile and nuclear activities, but not prohibited activities”.

US President George Bush said of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday: “He says he doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction. He’s got them. He’s not only got them he’s used them.

“The choice is his. And if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him, in the name of peace.”

U.N. experts searched Iraq’s main nuclear research facility and a former chemical arms production centre on Wednesday.

WOLFOWITZ: US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Wednesday Iraq’s UN declaration of its chemical, biological and nuclear programmes would not in itself trigger a decision by Washington on military action.

“We’re not going to make it on one single piece of information, but on patterns of information and also close consultation with allies,” Wolfowitz said in response to a reporter’s question.—Reuters