Report touts Iraq's nuclear weapons threat

LONDON -- Iraq could produce a nuclear weapon "in a matter of months," but only if it manages to acquire fissile material from an outside source, according to a report issued Monday by an independent military and security research group.

The report also said Iraq has an extensive biological weapons capability, a smaller chemical weapons stockpile and a small supply of missiles to deliver such weapons.

The report called Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction "the core objective of the regime," and said Baghdad had pursued this goal relentlessly for the past 11 years -- in defiance of commitments it made in agreeing to a cease-fire to end the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

But the report, issued by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, stopped short of endorsing military action against Iraq along the lines being proposed by the Bush administration and its allies.

Feeding the debate

"Wait and the threat will grow; strike and the threat may be used," said John Chipman, director of the institute. "Clearly, governments have a pressing duty to develop early a strategy to deal comprehensively with this unique international problem."

Analysts said the report's findings largely echoed those of previous studies. But its timing, comprehensiveness and the authority accorded the institute, which produces a highly respected annual study of the world's military forces, made it certain to feed the intensifying debate over what to do about Iraq and its leader.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has backed President Bush's Iraq policy despite opinion polls showing strong opposition at home, said the report "paints a powerful picture of a highly unstable regime" that is pursuing dangerous weapons.

"We're obviously not talking about washing powder here," said the spokesman.

But critics said the findings of the report were far too conditional to justify military action. Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrat Party, which has been skeptical about military action, said the report contained "nothing startling." While it confirmed Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction, Campbell told reporters, "where is the evidence of his intention to use these weapons?"