Iraq's mammoth document of its past weapons programs includes the names of foreign suppliers, disclosures that may be embarrassing for nations on the U.N. Security Council and others. A table of contents, the first clue to the contents of Iraq's document, listed all of Iraq's banned weapons programs, but did not indicate if any arms were bought or made after U.N. sanctions were imposed in August 1990.

In an index from Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, circulated on Monday, Iraq listed "procurements" for its nuclear programs as well as imported chemical precursors, foreign technical assistance for its chemical arms programs and "relations with companies, representative and individuals."

Under biological weapons, Sabri said 33 pages were devoted to "acquisition of equipment, material, supplies and empty munitions containers for all phases of the program."

The index gave arms programs by name only, without details. Foreign suppliers also were not identified in the index released on Monday "but I am sure it lists them," said one diplomat familiar with parts of the report.

"There are lots of pages devoted to procurement information," said Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a Washington research group.

"If they have listed all their suppliers, that is quite important and should be made public," he said in an interview. "If you expose this network, it means it is harder for them to continue," he said in an interview.

Milhollin contended that Iraq had shopped for parts for banned long-range missile parts in eastern Europe after 1991, among other items.

Among the contents of the document is mention of a "terminated radiation bomb," which Iraq declared to the inspectors in 1996. The bomb, tested in 1987 during Iraq's war with Iran, was designed to cause cancer, birth defects and slow death. The project was said to be scrapped.

NUCLEAR PROGRAM: 2,000 PAGES

As an example of Iraq's extensive nuclear program, the index listed 2,000 pages, including such chapters as electromagnetic isotope separation, chemical techniques, enrichment by gaseous diffusion and gaseous centrifuge, isotope separation by laser and enrichment of lithium isotopes.

U.N. inspectors in 1991 discovered Iraq had obtained bomb-making equipment, called calutrons, an antique technology used to separate nuclear weapons-grade material. The equipment was destroyed.

In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has to analyze nuclear sections of the declaration, said it did not expect any surprises in the declaration.

But spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the first environmental samples taken out of Iraq would be analyzed shortly for minute traces of suspicious materials to cross-check Iraq's dossier.

Information of arms suppliers in the past has been submitted by Iraq but not disclosed by the United Nations.

Companies around the world, which gave the data, did so on condition they not be identified publicly, although the United States and others are presumed to have access.

But this time all 15 Security Council members are to get the report, which means it could leak to the press quickly.
"There is no further reason I can see to keep it confidential," Milhollin said.

Unknown is whether the United States and other council members will try to suppress this part of Iraq's nearly 12,000-page declaration, delivered to the United Nations on Sunday.

Washington has a copy of the report, which it is distributed late on Monday to Russia, Britain, France and China, the other permanent council members.

The other 10 council members will receive copies of the report, possibly by the end of the week, after it is purged of information that could lead to weapons proliferation, such as how to make a bomb.

President Saddam Hussein's government met a Dec. 8 deadline called for in November in a crucial Security Council resolution that sets the ground rules for new tough weapons inspections and gives Iraq one more chance to disarm or face "serious consequences."

The Bush administration intends to show that significant information about any illegal weapons programs will put Baghdad in "material breach" of resolution 1441, adopted on Nov. 8, which would allow Washington to go to war.

But the other 14 Security Council members, including close ally Britain, say the resolution requires other violations besides false statements in the document. The resolution, Britain says, also requires verification from inspectors of any claim the United States and others may make

PHOTO CAPTION

Documents are carried into the United Nations after making their way from Iraq to New York, December 8, 2002. (Chip East/Reuters)