The claims made by the US and UK of having located Saddam Hussein's hidden stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons have turned out to be premature.

In Basra, British army officers have been saying all week that their  monitors may have picked up traces of deadly, straw coloured VX nerve agent that Saddam could load into barrels and roll off the backs of lorries to block the northward advance of coalition forces.

More significantly, their US counterparts said they might have found traces of another nerve agent, Sarin, when US soldiers guarding a facility at Hindiyah, north of Basra, took ill.

But, as it now turns out, the chemicals found at Hindiyah were pesticides.

Captain Adam Mastrianni, a military intelligence officer attached to the US 101st Airborne Division's aviation brigade, said comprehensive tests have revealed that what was discovered in Hindiyah was pesticide.

Capt Mastrianni said a "theatre-level chemical testing team" made up of biologists and chemists had disproved the preliminary field tests results. He also explained that the sick soldiers, who had felt giddy and developed skin blotches, had all recovered.

The US blunder prompted a note of caution from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said on Monday: "We have to take our time and look at it. It takes days to get samples of things from wherever they are in the battlefield into the first place where they take a look and then a second place where they get checked. The prudent thing in a case like this is to let the thing play itself out. We'll eventually know."

So far, despite three weeks of war and US troops entrenched in the heart of Baghdad, Saddam's troops have not unleashed their feared weapons of mass destruction.

Both President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have spoken about the danger facing the global community from banned chemical and biological weapons in Saddam's possession. Their argument was that after September 11 such threats emanating from Baghdad could not be ignored.

On Monday, news agency reports cited Major Michael Hamlet, of the US 101st Airborne Division, confirming that initial tests at a military training ground had revealed traces of nerve agents Sarin and Tabun and blister agent Lewisite.

Sarin and Tabun are related nerve agents that can kill when absorbed through the skin or inhaled as a gas. Death is preceded by convulsions, paralysis and asphyxiation.

Mustard gas begins dissolving tissues on contact and is particularly harmful to the eyes and lungs. It does not usually kill, but causes painful injuries that can linger for a lifetime.

CNN cameras recorded soldiers in gas masks using hand-held chemical weapons detectors to investigate metal drums.

"This could be either some type of pesticide, because this was an agricultural compound," General Benjamin Freakly told the television network, adding: "On the other hand, it could be a chemical agent, not weaponised."

Later, as US troops defending the facility were seen shedding their protective gear, it became clear the chemicals were not what they were initially feared to be.

As the allies step up their search for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has hit back at those who doubt Iraq has banned chemical and biological weapons.

"As I have made it clear, we will find the weapons of mass destruction," Hoon said in a recent statement.

He pointed out that protective equipment found in Iraqi military stores was evidence that such chemical or biological weapons existed.

"Since neither the United States nor the United Kingdom has any kind of chemical or biological weapons, that protective equipment could only be designed to protect Iraqi forces against their own use of chemical weapons," Hoon added. "We will find them, they are there."

In Qatar, coalition commanders have been making almost daily assertions about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and then retracting their claims.

Caches of powder, bottles of suspicious liquid or suspected long-range missiles have all been discovered by mobile nuclear, biological and chemical teams.

One significant find came when thousands of cartons of white powder were discovered in an industrial complex south of Baghdad, with documents in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare. A senior US official later said the material was probably "just explosives."

In a separate incident, a substance suspected as cyanide found dumped in the Euphrates river is still under investigation. An initial test showed positive results, but a second did not give a clear reading. "We don't have any details that are factually based," Brigadier-General Vince Brooks admitted.

He went on to declare, "We remain convinced that this regime does possess weapons of mass destruction. We know some of those may have been pulled into the Baghdad area, either delivery systems or potentially storage systems.
But let's remember that this regime has been involved in a campaign of denial and deception for decades."


rediff.com Senior Editor Shyam Bhatia is the co-author of Saddam's Bomb, on Iraq's search for nuclear weapons.