July 22, 1999
Web posted at: 10:01 p.m. EDT (0201 GMT)

In this story: Small quantity of VX found RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent James Martone

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The disposal of toxic agents left in Baghdad by the U.N. Special Commission on the disarmament of Iraq (UNSCOM) is going according to plan and poses no threat to the public, a U.N. envoy said Thursday.

"The waste will be put into concrete and sand. We will leave that at UNSCOM headquarters because after the waste has been heated with concrete and sand, it becomes completely harmless," said Prakash Shah.

Shah and a team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) arrived in Baghdad last week to dispose of small amounts of mustard gas and other toxins that UNSCOM said were used to calibrate testing equipment.

Former UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler said weapons inspectors safely stored one kilogram (2.2. pounds) of mustard gas and small amounts of other toxic materials at the facility before leaving last year.

Small quantity of VX found

But a controversy arose when a report to the Security Council on Wednesday revealed that the materials stored included a tiny sample of deadly VX nerve agent.

The VX had not been mentioned by Butler in an earlier report listing the chemical and biological agents left at the lab.

U.N. diplomats said that both Iraq and Russia are pushing for analysis of the VX. They speculated that UNSCOM could have placed the agent on warheads in an attempt to frame Baghdad.

But a chemical expert from the U.N. weapons commission, Igor Mitrokhin of Russia, told the Security Council the only possible use for the tiny VX sample, which contained less than a lethal dose, was to calibrate equipment to test for VX.

Iraq says it at one time had produced 3.9 tons of VX.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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