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| World News - updated 2:57 PM ET Feb 26 |
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By Douglas Busvine BERLIN (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) may be able to menace Iraq's neighbors with nuclear weapons in three years and fire a missile as far as Europe by 2005, according to a German intelligence assessment made public on Saturday. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has gathered evidence that Baghdad is also stepping up efforts to produce chemical weapons and has increased buying abroad of the inputs needed to make biological weapons. Details of the assessment were published in German newspapers. A spokesman at the BND's headquarters near Munich confirmed that selected correspondents had been briefed on Iraq by intelligence officials on Friday. ``It is clear that we have suspicions about Iraq,'' the spokesman told Reuters. Reports on the threat Germany believes Iraq poses to the world came eight days after U.S. and British planes hit Iraqi air defense targets around Baghdad. Iraq said two people died in the air raids. U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said at the time he would ''watch very carefully'' whether Saddam develops weapons of mass destruction and would take ``appropriate action'' if he did so. Allies Critical Some NATO (news - web sites) allies, who were not informed in advance of the raids, criticized the air attacks. France even condemned the raids, made outside U.N.-sanctioned no-fly zones, as illegal. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was attacked by his own Greens party, which grew out of the Cold War peace movement, for expressing understanding for the bombing at talks in Washington this week with Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites). Fischer, who opposed the Allied invasion of Iraq a decade ago, also said he was concerned about Iraq's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and missile technology. Weapons Programs Iraq barred U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998, making it extremely difficult to keep track of what the West believes are Baghdad's efforts to menace the Middle East and beyond with ABC -- atomic, biological and chemical -- weapons. Based on information it has gathered, the German BND has drawn the following conclusions, according to reports in the Welt and Frankfurter Allgemeine newspapers: + NUCLEAR WEAPONS: There is evidence that Iraq has resumed its nuclear program and may be capable of producing an atomic bomb in three years. Work has been observed at the Al Qaim site, believed to be the center of Baghdad's nuclear program. + MISSILES: Iraq is currently developing its Al Samoud and Ababil 100/Al Fatah (news - web sites) short-range rockets, which can deliver a 300 kg payload 95 miles. Medium-range rockets capable of carrying a warhead 3,000 km (1,900 miles) could be built by 2005 -- putting Europe within reach. Iraq is also believed to be capable of manufacturing solid rocket fuel. A New Delhi-based company, which is on a German government blacklist because of its alleged role in proliferation, has acted as a buyer on Iraq's behalf. Deliveries have been made via Malaysia and Dubai, the BND says. + CHEMICAL WEAPONS: Since the end of U.N. weapons inspections, the number of Iraqi sites involved in chemicals production has increased from 20 to 80. Of that total, the BND believes a quarter to be involved in making weapons. + BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS: Widespread procurement activity has been observed abroad and production of biological weapons could be resumed at short notice. The BND does not rule out the possibility that production may already have begun.
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