Blix: We get a lot of briefings about what they believe that Iraq has, but what we need to have is an indication of the place where such things are stored

WASHING, December 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Washington will give United Nations inspectors new intelligence, gathered chiefly by spy satellites, that could lead them to alleged Iraqi chemical and biological stockpiles, the New York Times reported Saturday December 21.

The paper quoted senior officials as saying that the new information could be delivered to the United Nations as early as this weekend, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Until now, the U.S. has been reluctant to provide the data, fearing the information could be leaked to the Iraqis.

Over the past several days, chief weapons inspector Han Blix has diplomatically but forcefully said that he cannot make his inspections more precise without specific intelligence information from Washington.

One senior administration official said that as early as this weekend, the inspectors would be given higher quality intelligence that would be delivered to the U.N. inspection team's headquarters in New York and to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

But several officials suggested that the first data sent to the United Nations would not be the best, or most specific, currently available to American agencies.

"Based on our historical experience with UNSCOM," said one senior official told the paper, referring to the United Nations inspection group that operated in Iraq until late in 1998, "they had a very difficult time keeping information from falling into Iraqi hands."

Ultimately, officials said, they hoped to provide the U.N. inspectors with what one official called "just in time" information.

The strategy appears to be to feed the inspectors information while they are on the ground, to be acted on before Iraqi intelligence officials can learn of their intentions.

"We are going to give them one piece of information at a time," another official told the daily, "given strategically at the right moment."

According to the New York Times, American officials met quietly at the United Nations on Thursday, December 20, with Demetrius Perricos, the head of operations for the chemical and biological weapons team, to give him specific proposals on how to organize interviews with Iraqi arms experts outside their country.

It was unclear how, if at all, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the American military might take part in that process.

The revelation that Washington is prepared to release new intelligence is an indication that U.S. President George Bush is working to keep up the pressure on Iraq.

On Friday, Blix underlined that the U.S. and Britain are not providing enough intelligence to his inspectors about sites in Iraq where they claim Baghdad is hiding weapons of mass destruction.

"The most important thing that governments like the U.S. or the U.K. could give us would be to tell us the sites where they are convinced that they keep some weapons of mass destruction. This is what we want to have," he said in an interview with the BBC.

"We get a lot of briefings about what they believe that Iraq has, but what we need to have is an indication of the place where such things are stored," Blix added.

Asked about what access his inspectors had been given to U.S. and British intelligence, he said: "Not very much, not yet. I hope we will and now that we are in full operation I hope it will come".

"They have the methods to listen to telephone conversations, they have spies, satellites, etc. So they have a lot of sources which we don't have."

Shrugging off Blix's criticism, the United States insisted Friday that it will keep sharing intelligence with U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq but will not provide secrets that risk "drying up" its sources for future data.

"It is entirely in the interest of the United States, of this government, to give the inspectors the tools they need to do their job," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

"We want to help the inspectors to have all the evidence they need," said Fleischer, but "we never want to do anything that could lead to drying up of sources and methods."

"Whether or not there's room for the United States and the inspectors, working collaboratively, to have differing interpretations about the exact volume of information is of course a topic that can come up from time to time," said Fleischer.

The spokesman said the United States would work to achieve a balance "agreeable to both sides."

The United States and Britain, the two countries pushing most strongly for a war in Iraq, claim Baghdad is in "material breach" of the latest U.N. disarmament resolution -- a term widely interpreted as a possible pretext for war.