A U.N. diplomat picks up a copy of the sanitized version of Saddam Hussein’s chemical, biological and long-range missile program

WASHINGTON , December 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A daily American newspaper reported Wednesday, December 18, that the White House is expected to declare that “ Iraq has violated the United Nations resolution requiring it to disclose all its weapons of mass destruction,” in a clear sign that the war on Iraq is eminent.

The New York Times reported that senior officials said that at a “national security meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning, President Bush will consider whether to declare Iraq in “material breach” of its obligations.”

The paper also reported that John S. Wolf, a senior State Department nonproliferation official, met Wednesday morning with Hans Blix, the head of the United Nations inspection team for chemical and biological weapons, to “describe the deficiencies that American intelligence agencies say they have found in the Iraqi declaration that says Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction or long-range missiles.”

This meeting, the paper said, was the “first time the administration had laid out to the United Nations its assessment of the inadequacies of the Iraqi declaration.”

During a meeting between national security advisor sin the White House, issues confronting Bush, specifically, whether the “material breach” is a legal justification to go to war, were discussed, the New York Times said, adding that the meeting was however, not attended by Bush himself.

The paper added that there seemed to be a consensus between the officials that “ Iraq ’s failure so far to explain what happened to its chemical and biological weapons programs after 1998, should be characterized as evidence that Iraq is engaged in what one official called “not so passive resistance” to a full inspection by the United Nations.”

“Administration officials have not produced evidence that Iraq has nuclear weapons, but say President Saddam Hussein is thought to have acquired equipment that would aid in the development of such arms.

“The officials said they did not expect that the violations would be described by Mr. Bush as an immediate cause for war, but rather as a “serious matter” and evidence that Iraq was again engaging in hide-and-seek with inspectors,” the Times said.

The paper quoted an official saying that the administration would step up “pressure on the United Nations to demand interviews with Iraqi scientists outside of Iraq ,” while fully expecting that Hussein would resist those interviews.

In further analysis, the New York Times said that the debate over how to characterize Iraqi violations is important because “it may determine how many allies join the United States in any eventual conflict.”

However, the paper said, the immediate effect of the administration’s declaration, officials say, “will be to put enormous new pressure on Iraq , the Security Council and the United Nations inspectors, especially in the matter of interviewing Iraqi scientists.”

Meanwhile, chief nuclear inspector Mohamed El-Baradei said Wednesday in an interview with Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram that no proof has emerged yet that Iraq has developed a nuclear program since the previous inspection regime ended in 1998, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Baradei’s preliminary assessment will be included in a report Thursday, December 17, to the U.N. Security Council about Iraq ’s December 8 declaration that it has abandoned its programs for weapons of mass destruction, the paper said.

Until now there is “no proof concerning the development of a nuclear program in Iraq since 1998,” El-Baradei, who heads the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the government daily.

“There is no sign of change in (the Iraqi) facilities since 1998,” when the previous inspection mission withdrew ahead of U.S. and British air strikes, El-Baradei was quoted as saying.

But he added, “The inspections are currently in a preliminary stage and we are in contact with several countries which must provide us with information on the Iraqi nuclear program.”

U.N. experts will make their first evaluation of Iraq ’s declaration on its weapons programs to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, with leading powers already expressing skepticism about the document.

An edited 3,000-page version - stripped of sensitive material for the 10 non-permanent members of the council - was being distributed to be handed to all Security Council members on Tuesday.

The five, who had already seen the full version, were given the expurgated version as well because, according to a U.N. diplomat, that they wanted to know what the other 10 were seeing.

The permanent members, along with the IAEA and UNMOVIC, recommended which parts of the Iraqi report would breach international non-proliferation treaties. The names of foreign companies that supplied Iraq were also taken out.

In another development, U.K. daily newspaper, the Independent said that the report lists 150 foreign companies, including some from America , Britain , Germany and France , that “supported Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction program.”

The paper was quoting a German newspaper, Die Tageszeitung, saying it had seen a copy of the original Iraqi dossier which was vetted for sensitive information.

According to the paper, British officials said the list of companies appeared to be accurate.

These included eighty German firms and 24 U.S. companies which supplied Iraq with equipment and know-how for its weapons programs from 1975 onwards.