Iraq may possess uranium

LONDON -- Iraq has military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, and has tried to acquire "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa, Britain said Tuesday in a dossier of evidence about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction.\nSaddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons are ready to be used within 45 minutes of an order to fight, the dossier said.\n"Unless we face up to the threat, not only do we risk undermining the authority of the U.N., whose resolutions he defies, but more importantly and in the longer term, we place at risk the lives and prosperity of our own people," Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an introduction to the 50-page report.\nThe document, released hours before Parliament convened in a special session to debate possible military action against Iraq, argues that Saddam continues to develop chemical and biological weapons, is trying to acquire nuclear weapons and has extended the range of its ballistic missiles.\nIraq rejected the British analysis.\n"This conclusion that Iraq is engaged in the production of weapons of mass destruction is simply not true," Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Sa'adi told an evening news conference in Baghdad.\n"His (Blair's) allegations are long, his evidence is short," al-Sa'adi said, calling the report a "hodgepodge of half-truths, lies and shortsighted and naive allegations" which he said would not hold up when examined by "competent and independent" experts.\n"He knows that his dossier is for public consumption and propaganda in preparation for war and not for the scrutiny of experts," al-Sa'adi added.\nBlair is President Bush's closest European ally, but faces dissent among lawmakers in his governing Labor Party and a reported rift in his Cabinet over an Iraqi war. Commentators said the document was published in an effort to shore up domestic support for possible military action against Iraq.\nAddressing a packed House of Commons Tuesday, Blair said Saddam risked "war, international ostracism, sanctions and the isolation of the Iraqi economy" to keep his weapons program.\n"His weapons of mass destruction program is active, detailed and growing," said Blair.