An Iraqi scientist who was involved in the country's previous nuclear program was questioned by UN arms experts, as inspections were set to continue through the Christmas holiday. Sabah Abdel Nour, a professor at Baghdad's technological university, told journalists "the inspectors asked me for a personal interview and proposed that it be in private."

"I apologized and asked for the presence of a member of the National Monitoring Directorate, who arrived, and the meeting lasted more than an hour," he said.

The directorate liaises with UN inspectors who resumed work in Iraq on November 27 after a four-year break. This is the first time the private interviewing of a scientist has been made public since then.

Asked why the inspectors would want to interview him, Abdel Nour said he had been "linked with the previous nuclear program."

He said his name figured on a list of Iraqi scientists the inspectors wanted to question, adding that he had been interviewed by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the last round of inspections ended in December 1998.

Asked whether his interviewers had proposed that he travel abroad to be interviewed, Abdel Nour said no, and added: "We have nothing to hide in Iraq."

Under Resolution 1441 adopted by the UN Security Council last month, UN inspectors have new powers to whisk scientists and their families abroad so that they can be interviewed without risk of Iraqi intimidation.

Abdel Nour said the meeting was "cordial" and took place "in an atmosphere of cooperation and professionalism."

University president Mazen Mohammad Ali told journalists the visit lasted three hours, with inspectors meeting first with him and then with those heads of department and professors who were present.

"They visited all the laboratories, and wanted to know through what channels the university obtains its equipment, materials and programs of study," he said.

"We explained to them the difficulties of obtaining what we need through the UN oil-for-food program and the embargo on the entry (into Iraq) of a large number of materials."

Iraq has been under UN trade sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The UN-administered oil-for-food program, instituted in 1996, allows Iraq to buy food, medicine and other basic necessities in exchange for oil exports.

Ali also said the inspectors took copies of the curriculum and asked about the relations between his university and others in Iraq, as well as about its relations with the business world.

Hiro Ueki, the spokesman for the inspectors, confirmed that an Iraqi scientist was interviewed at the university, without naming him.

"In the course of the inspection, the team requested an interview with a particular Iraqi scientist, conducted separately from the rest of the inspection," Ueki said in his daily press statement.

"The scientist consented to lengthy interview regarding technical activities in Iraq. The interview was conducted in a private office chosen at random, without cameras, or recordings being present. The interviewee requested an Iraqi witness to join him."

Ueki added "this represents the resumption of a regular interview programme that was interrupted in 1998."

Elsewhere, Ueki said a UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) team inspected the Al-Nidaa factory in south Baghdad, which makes mechanical parts and equipment for different types of missiles.

Another missile team inspected the Abdul Kareem Abass plant, some 60 kilometres (36 miles) south of Baghdad, he said.

This site was declared by Iraq in October and is the only plant in Iraq that makes ammonium perchlorate, the primary ingredient used in the production of solid propellant.

A third team went to three different sites under the control of the Taji Technical Batallion, at Tarmiya, Baquba and Taji. There it checked and tagged Al-Samoud missiles and warheads.

Ueki said a UNMOVIC biological team had inspected the College of Veterinary Medicine in Abu Ghraib, 15 kilometers (10 miles) west of the capital and checked previously tagged equipment.

Another biological team inspected the brewery of the National Company Food Industries, a site with previously tagged dual-use (civilians and military) equipment, fermenters and filters, Ueki said.

An Iraqi spokesman said chemical experts went to the Hettin firm in Iskandariya, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Baghdad, to inspect the vast state-run industrial complex grouping several dual-use factories. Ueki, commenting on the visit, said the site produced conventional ammunition.

IAEA experts also went to sites not visited over the past four weeks, the Iraqi source said.

One was the state-owned Salaheddin electronic firm in the Baghdad suburb of al-Dura, a UN-monitored site that has been involved in programs to develop Scud missiles.

Ueki said the Salaheddin firm was associated with the previous nuclear program until 1990 and that it produced such items as radar, fuses and communications equipment.

Inspections are to continue for a 26th day on Wednesday, which is Christmas day.

PHOTO CAPTION

Sabah Abdel Nour, an Iraqi professor at the University of Technology talks during a media conference at his faculty, with a picture of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and words in Arabic saying ' in the name of God the most compassionate and most merciful' in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday, Dec. 24 , 2002. Sabah, who was part of the Iraqi nuclear program and interviewed by the U.N. inspectors, told reporters Tuesday that the interview was objective and the discussion was very friendly. ( AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
- Dec 24 3:51 PM ET