Iraq must do more than they have done so far Hans Blix Chief UN inspector

Mr Blix was speaking in Brussels where he briefed EU officials on the progress of his inspection teams.

Mr Blix - who is going to Baghdad at the weekend - said the message he was sending to Iraqi leaders was that "the situation is very tense and very dangerous".

In the United States George W Bush warned that there were limits to American patience with Iraq.

"So far the evidence hasn't been very good that [Iraq] is disarming. And time is running out. At some point in time the United States' patience will run out," he said.

Inspections

On Thursday, the UN announced the inspectors had found empty chemical warheads during an inspection of a storage area, the Reuters news agency reported.

The spokesman, Hiro Ueki, reportedly said the inspectors had found "11 empty 122 mm chemical warheads and one warhead that requires further evaluation".

UN inspectors also made surprise visits to two private homes, interviewing Iraqi nuclear scientists.

They took physicist Faleh Hassan to inspect what appeared to be a man-made mound of earth and thoroughly searched the home of nuclear scientist Shaker El-Jibouri.

Calling it a "provocative operation", he said inspectors looked at everything in his home, "including beds and clothes" as well as research papers.

It was the first time inspectors had gone to private homes.

General Amin did not criticise the inspectors

Iraq's chief liaison officer to the inspectors said the two men were not on a list of scientists given to the United Nations.

But General Hossam Mohammed Amin said that the inspectors were doing their jobs and had behaved properly.

"All is going well so far," another top aide to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein said at the same news conference.

"There are some complaints here and there and there but we expect to resolve [them] on Sunday," Amir al-Saadi said, referring to the upcoming visit of Mr Blix to Baghdad.

Concern

"We feel that Iraq must do more than they have done so far in order to make this a credible avenue," Mr Blix told reporters in Brussels earlier in the day.

He said Iraq had to either provide evidence that it had destroyed the suspected weapons of mass destruction - such as archives and budgets - or surrender what they might have for destruction under supervision.

IRAQI MATERIEL UNACCOUNTED FOR

Nearly four tons of VX nerve agents Growth media for 20,000 litres of biological warfare agents 15,000 shells for use in biological warfare 6,000 chemical warfare bombs Nuclear information

He said inspectors had found illegally-imported conventional weapons materials in Iraq, some dating from two years ago.

These were being examined to see whether they were destined for banned weapons programmes.

Supporting the chief inspector, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said war could still be averted and the responsibility was "basically on the side of Saddam Hussein".

The EU has made it plain that it does not want a war, the BBC's Chris Morris says, but there are clear divisions in its ranks.