Inspectors rely on satellites to monitor Iraq

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations weapons inspection team has stepped up its use of satellite images and other sources of information to assess Iraq's weapons capabilities, a U.N. report said Friday.

U.N. weapons inspectors have been barred from Iraq since they were withdrawn in December 1998, just before a U.S. and British bombing campaign.

The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission is charged with inspecting any remaining chemical, biological or long-range missile programs in Iraq. Nuclear weapons are under the jurisdiction of the Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

In June, UNMOVIC contracted Space Imaging LP to provide high-resolution commercial satellite images, said Hans Blix, head of the U.N. program. He also said it continues to glean information about possible weapons-related activity in Iraq from U.N. member states and from publicly available data.

Blix said his headquarters staff is made up of 63 people of 27 nationalities, while the roster of trained experts available to go to Iraq if inspections there resume includes 220 people from 44 countries.

Teams could begin inspections within weeks if Iraq allowed them back in. According to Security Council resolutions, once inside Iraq, Blix has 60 days to develop a list of disarmament tasks. The resolutions give the inspectors six months to a year to determine whether Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction.