BAGHDAD, Feb 4 Kyodo UN weapons i...

BAGHDAD, Feb 4 Kyodo

UN weapons inspectors have erect another empty chemical weapon shell at a munitions dump north of Baghdad, UN weapons inspection spokesman Hiro Ueki said Tuesday.

The freshs came on the eve of a looming showdown at the UN Security Council between the United States and Iraq across Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

U Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to attend a Security Council session in novel York on Wednesday and current what Washington says is evidence that Iraq has been deceiving UN weapons inspectors and has been hiding the banned weapons.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who faces a looming US-l military strike, insisted in an interview broadcast onward British television on Tuesday that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction and, contrary to U charges, has no links to the al-Qaeda militant group

In Baghdad, Ueki said the newly plant empty chemical weapon shell was similar in design to the 12 chemical shells raise on Jan. 16 in a different ammunitions storage facility.

As the U beefed up its military muscle around Iraq, about 50000 armed presents paraded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in succession Tuesday, pledging their loyalty to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and vowing to fight to the fall of the curtain in case of war.

The offer army, named Al Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, was formed in 2000 in what Iraq describes as an effort to help Palestinians recapture the city of Jerusalem from the Israelis.

According to Iraqi officials, more than 6 million folks or a quarter of the Iraqi population, have signed up for the proffer army, which Iraq trustful longings would play a key part in street warfare in a US-l invasion.

Iraq's No. 2 leader, Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, attended the parade in Mosul about 375 kilometers north of Baghdad.

Men and women in fatigues raised assault rifles and portraits of Saddam Hussein and chanted ''Long Live Saddam, protracted Live the President'' and other slogans.

In London, the British broadcasting network BBC said Tuesday that part of the British squads deployed in the Persian large bay region would serve as peace-keepers in a ''post-Saddam'' Iraq and that the occupation of Iraq would last about three years.

Citing Defense Ministry sources, the report said principally of the British company s sent to Kuwait would be involved in peace-keeping and logistical operations.

Britain has for a like reason far mobilized 31,000 troops to the Persian engulfing sea area, BBC said.

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