IRAQ: If UN nuclear inspectors want to return to Iraq to check for missing equipment and materials, they are welcome, a government minister said yesterday.
The Science and Technology Minister, Mr Rashad Omar, was responding to concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency at the "apparent systematic dismantlement" of the physical remnants of Saddam Hussein's once-vigorous nuclear programme.
The IAEA had reported on Monday that neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once closely monitored by the agency.
"The locations that belong to the Science and Technology Ministry are secure and under our control," Mr Omar said.
Nothing had gone missing since a looting spree after last year's US-led invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no banned weapons.
Mr Omar said Tuwaitha, a vast compound south of Baghdad that included Iraq's main nuclear facility, was being turned into a science park.
"The IAEA came back one month ago, they inspected the plant and others and didn't say anything.
"We are transparent. We are happy for the IAEA or any other organisation to come and inspect," he said, adding that he had not seen the agency's report to the Security Council.
The IAEA report, released three weeks ahead of the US presidential election, could increase criticism of the Iraq policies of the Bush administration, already under fire for its handling of an insurgency that has so far proved impossible to crush.
On the military front, an overnight US air strike on the rebel-held city of Falluja targeted a restaurant which the military said was a meeting place for followers of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The latest raid coincided with efforts to restore state authority in Falluja and elsewhere before January elections.
Witnesses said bombs flattened the popular Haji Hussein kebab house on Falluja's main street, killing two guards and reducing it to a pile of crushed concrete and twisted metal.
After sunset, US forces and insurgents clashed just east of Falluja, residents said. US air support was called in, with fighter planes firing on one neighbourhood, they said. A doctor at a Falluja hospital, Dr Haithan Rahim, said eight people were killed in the fighting. The US military said it was a "precision strike" on a location where Zarqawi militants met to plot attacks.
"Zarqawi does not come here. Where is Zarqawi? We have not seen Zarqawi," yelled one Falluja resident after the US raid.
Zarqawi's group has claimed some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide bombings, as well as the beheadings of foreign hostages, including Kenneth Bigley, who was killed last Thursday.
His body was dumped south of Baghdad the following day, insurgent sources said yesterday.
The British embassy said that it had still not recovered the remains.
In a videotape broadcast on Monday, Iraqi militants beheaded a Turkish contractor who they said had co-operated with US forces.
Ten Turkish hostages held since last month have returned to their company's offices in Baghdad, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Al Jazeera television reported on Sunday that militants had freed the hostages after their Turkish construction company had said it would halt its operations in Iraq.
Insurgents have sought to frighten US allies into pulling their troops and contractors out of Iraq.
Hungary's new Prime Minister, Mr Ferenc Gyurcsany, said yesterday his government would decide at the end of November or early December whether to keep Hungary's 300-strong transport battalion in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
South Korea is investigating a warning posted on an Arabic website threatening attacks if Seoul does not pull its 3,600 troops out of Iraq in 14 days, an official said.
Three South Korean civilians have been killed in Iraq, including an interpreter beheaded by Islamic militants in June.
The US military believes Falluja is a main sanctuary for such militants, and American officers have voiced scepticism that any political deal to pacify the town can dislodge them.
Falluja representatives met interim government officials in the latest of a series of talks to put Iraqi security forces back in control of the rebellious city.
Previous truce deals have failed to calm Falluja.