U.S. limits search by Vienna nuke team

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BAGHDAD -- U.S. forces in Iraq have placed limits on a seven-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency, confining it to a single nuclear-storage site south of Baghdad.

The team is to spend two weeks, beginning tomorrow, investigating pilferage at the Al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, where thieves are believed to have stolen uranium and possibly radioactive isotopes used in hospitals, industry and research.

Pentagon officials said yesterday the IAEA visit is a one-time event to enforce the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, not a weapons inspection that might set a precedent for future U.N. searches for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

U.S. troops and weapons experts will accompany the IAEA officials wherever they go, an arrangement the Pentagon officials said was for safety.

U.S. officials compiling an inventory of a looted Iraqi nuclear site found more radioactive material than had been catalogued in the past by the IAEA.

It's not clear whether the discovery means U.S. information was wrong or the Iraqis had moved material to the Tuwaitha site before the war, said three top military and defense officials who briefed reporters in Washington on the condition of anonymity.

The Associated Press reported from Washington yesterday that U.S. officials had recovered more than 100 metal storage barrels thought to be stolen from the site.

Officials said none of the people who returned the barrels in exchange for a $3 reward showed elevated levels of radiation.

An official with the Vienna, Austria-based IAEA said the priority of the team would be to determine how much material is missing.