UN inspectors commencing work in Iraq

UN inspectors in Iraq will first of all visit the facilities that were examined during previous inspections, the UN information centre in Moscow reported on Wednesday.

It is necessary to check the state of the equipment at these facilities and "to set a new start position for inspections", RIA Novosti's interlocutor explained. The acquired results will be compared with those of the previous inspections. At the same time, the UN information centre did not rule out a possibility of examining other objects at any moment.

International expert groups visiting facilities will consist of 4-5 to 20-30 people. Each group has a secretary who will thoroughly record the experts' work.

An inspection is a complicated process, which includes a number of operations, from equipment deployment till taking air samples in order to find out whether pharmaceutical plants produce components of chemical weapons.

Inspectors will also need time to install equipment for routine monitoring, video cameras and recording devices.

The 17 inspectors that started working on Wednesday have to check the cameras and other monitoring equipment installed during previous inspections.

This time, however, the UNMOVIC and IAEA groups have the most modern equipment, including portable detectors and sample analyzers, which will allow to conduct the necessary procedures more efficiently and quickly.

In future inspector groups may be dispersed all over Iraq, looking for mobile laboratories, underground plants or other facilities the country may have to produce weapons of mass destruction.