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UN arms inspectors on Sunday visited a space research and development center in their searches for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, their spokesman Hiro Ueki said in a statement.
A team of missile experts from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) paid their unannounced visit to the Al Battanee Center in Baghdad, which "provides the telemetry systems for the Al Samoud missile system."
This center is a scientific group engaged in "space technology, space optics, atmospheric studies and remote sensing," Ueki said.
Another missile team inspected the Taji Technical Battalion, some 40 km north of Baghdad. The site, belonging to the Iraqi military, is "a missile storage area and a former Scud dump site."
A UNMOVIC chemical team went to the Al Nahrawan site, which is part of the Al Basil Company. This facility consists of several pilot plants involved in the production of some chemicals and "was previously declared to be using dual-use equipment and chemicals."
Some UN biological experts inspected the Al Kindi Company for the Production of Veterinary Vaccines in Abu Ghraib, 43 km northwest of Baghdad, Ueki said.
The facility is a multi-sector company, partially owned by the Ministry of Agriculture and partially privately owned, and "produces a variety of viral and bacterial veterinary vaccines, using basic glassware and techniques."
Also on Sunday, nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited an electronics factory, a computer center and a teaching institute of welding technology, all of which were suspected of developing prohibited nuclear weapons.
Currently there are 115 inspectors in Iraq, 94 of whom are from the UNMOVIC and 19 from the IAEA.
By Jan. 27, the inspectors must give their first report to the UN Security Council about Iraq's weapons programs.
(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2002)
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