Iraqi factories that could be used for making chemical or biological agents have been rebuilt since 1998, raising "a high level" of US concern, officials said yesterday.
The latest expression of concern comes with the arrival in office of a new Republican administration, whose leaders have promised strong action against Iraq and aim to revive the weakening coalition against Baghdad.
The intention of the US Secretary of State, Gen Colin Powell, "is to maintain the sanctions, to re-energise the sanctions and to keep Iraq to its international obligations", a State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, said.
Mr Boucher said that Iraqi efforts to rebuild bomb-damaged "dual-use" chemical warfare facilities date back to 1999.
The New York Times reported that three factories were located in an industrial complex in Falluja, west of Baghdad.
Citing senior US officials, the newspaper reported that all three factories were previously involved in making chemical or biological agents and had been closely monitored by UN inspectors. Two were damaged in Operation Desert Fox, the US and British air strikes launched in December 1998 after UN inspectors were pulled out of Iraq.
They included a plant that the Iraqis said makes castor oil used in brake fluid, the New York Times report claimed. According to the report, US officials say the mash from castor beans is used to make a lethal biological toxin known as ricin.
Another rebuilt plant was believed to be producing pesticides or herbicides, and a third plant had resumed production of chlorine, the newspaper claimed. Chlorine can be used in the production of chemical weapon precursors.
Hours before President Bush's inauguration on Saturday, US planes launched attacks on Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery and a radar site, in response to Iraqi fire, the US Central Command said in a weekend statement.
At Samawa, thousands took part in a funeral for six civilians whom witnesses said were killed in an air-strike on Salman, a village about 120 km from Baghdad. Witnesses say missiles hit a cattle-feed depot run by the agriculture ministry and a nearby house, killing six people and wounding three others.