If UN nuclear inspectors want to return to Iraq to check for missing equipment and materials, they are welcome, a government minister said on Tuesday.
Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar was responding to concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency at the "apparent systematic dismantlement" of the physical remnants of Saddam Hussein's once-vigorous nuclear programme.
The IAEA reported on Monday that neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once closely monitored by the agency.
"The locations that belong to the Science and Technology ministry are secure and under our control," Omar told Reuters.
He said nothing had gone missing since a looting spree after last year's US-led invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no banned weapons.
Omar said Tuwaitha, a vast compound south of Baghdad that included Iraq's main nuclear facility, was being turned into a science park. "The IAEA came back one month ago, they inspected the plant and others and didn't say anything.
"We are transparent. We are happy for the IAEA or any other organisation to come and inspect," he said, adding that he had not seen the agency's report to the Security Council.
The IAEA report, released three weeks ahead of the US presidential election, could fuel criticism of the Iraq policies of the Bush administration, already under fire for its handling of an insurgency that has so far proved impossible to crush.
On the military front, an overnight US air strike on the rebel-held city of Falluja targeted a restaurant which the military said was a meeting place for followers of America's top enemy in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The latest raid coincided with efforts to restore state authority in Falluja and elsewhere before January elections.
ZARQAWI NETWORK TARGETED:
The US military said it was a "precision strike" on a location where Zarqawi militants met to plot attacks.
"Zarqawi does not come here. Where is Zarqawi? We have not seen Zarqawi," yelled one Falluja resident after the US raid.
Zarqawi's group has claimed some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide bombings, as well as the beheadings of foreign hostages, including Briton Kenneth Bigley, who was killed on Thursday.
US troops detained the top Sunni Muslim cleric in Anbar province, which includes Falluja, on Tuesday after fighting in the rebel-held regional capital of Ramadi, witnesses said.
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