Pressure mounted on Iraq to let weapons inspectors return, ahead of an intense week of UN diplomacy to form a resolution tough enough for US demands.
And the diplomatic moves came as a dissident Iraqi nuclear scientist warned Baghdad could build a nuclear bomb by the end of this year. Dr Khidir Hamza, described as a senior Iraqi nuclear researcher who fled to the West in 1994, believed that Iraq was able to make copies of a German-built centrifuge and use them to enrich uranium smuggled from Brazil to produce a nuclear bomb within the next few months.
"We videoed as it was put up, so we could build identical ones," the British publication quoted the Iraqi as saying. "When the inspectors took away the original centrifuge, we already had the know-how. I believe there are probably hundreds of copies today."
Speaking to The Times, he said "Unless he is stopped soon Saddam will have set up a whole nuclear bomb industry, not just have made a couple of bombs."
He told the newspaper that even if UN inspectors returned to Iraq and were given unrestricted access, it would be difficult to detect bomb-building assembly lines.
"The beauty of the present system is that the units are each very small and in the four years since the inspectors left, they will have been concealed underground or in basements or buildings that outwardly seem normal," Hamza said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he would tour the Middle East this week to gather support for an initiative to persuade Iraq to allow the inspectors back.
In another development, Newsweek Magazine found that Americans may not need more convincing with 67 percent of those polled favoring a strike on Iraq, up 5 percentage points from just two weeks ago. (Albawaba.com)
