Biological inspectors start first inspection in Iraq

A UN biological weapons inspection team began checking monitoring equipment on July 27 in what could be the first test of a supposed new spirit of cooperation by Iraq, noted the chief UN arms inspector.

The team, headed by German biological inspector Gabrial Wadsack, arrived on July 26 and began work on the morning of July 27, according to Joe Lomas, Director of the UN arms monitoring operation.

"Their mission is going to be to inspect sites undergoing monitoring by the resident Baghdad monitoring and verification center," he said.

The team is the first to arrive since the visit last week of the new chief weapons inspector, Australian Richard Butler, Butler said he found a "new spirit of cooperation, a new sense of determination" that could bring results in three or four weeks.

The comments were a marked change from those of his predecessor Rolf Ekeus, who frequently complained that the government of Iraq was trying to hide weapons and documents from inspectors.

However, Butler also said in Kuwait, after leaving Baghdad, that he expected the job of destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would not finish for "a long time."

The elimination of Iraq's dangerous weapons was called for by the UN Security Council.