U.N. arms inspectors hunting for weapons of mass destruction searched four suspect sites in Iraq on Friday, a Muslim rest day, including one in the southern province of Basra. Iraqi officials said missile experts inspected al Rasheed State Company, 37 miles southeast of Baghdad. The company, which is run by the Military Industrialization Commission, is concerned with the manufacture of mechanical parts for several solid propellant rockets.

A chemical team inspected al Basil Company in al Nahrawan. The facility consists of several pilot plants involved in the production of some chemicals, mainly at the request of other companies. The site was previously declared to be using dual-use equipment and chemicals.

A U.N. Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) multidisciplinary team headed for Ramadi, 70 miles west of the capital Baghdad.

The Iraqi officials said a biological team left for Basra, 340 miles south of Baghdad.

More than 100 inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and UNMOVIC are in Iraq trying to discover what it has been up to since their predecessors left before U.S.-British air raids in 1998.

Iraqi officials said the inspectors have seen nothing to support U.S. and British allegations that the country still has prohibited weapons activities.

General Hussam Mohammed Amin said on Thursday U.N. inspectors had visited 230 sites since they returned to the country on November 27 and found nothing incriminating.

"All these activities prove that the Iraqi declarations are credible and the American allegations are baseless. They are lying for political reasons," he told a news conference.

U.N. Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix is due to visit Baghdad in the third week of January shortly before January 27 when he is scheduled to report to the U.N. Security Council on the findings of his experts. Baghdad is hoping for a clean bill of health.

In general, inspections have gone smoothly since the experts resumed work on November 27 after a four-year gap, but Iraqi officials in charge of sites they have visited have complained in recent days about the behavior of the inspectors.

A unanimous Security Council resolution passed in November ordered Baghdad to reveal all details of its weapons programs, as required by resolutions going back to the 1991 Gulf War , or face "serious consequences."

The resolution opened the way for inspectors to return to Iraq for the first time in four years, to resume a mission that began after a U.S.-led military coalition ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqis perform Friday prayers at Mother of all Battles mosque in Baghdad on Friday, Jan. 3. 2003. U.N. weapons inspectors continued on Friday, their daily search for banned weapons in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)