Russia warns Iraq on VX gas

RUSSIAN FOREIGN Minister Yevgeny Primakov said yesterday that Iraq should stop denying it put VX nerve gas into missile warheads before the Gulf War and cooperate with UN arms inspectors to get sanctions lifted.

"I don't think it's worthwhile for Baghdad to deny it ... The fact is they never used bacteriological weapons in the Gulf War." He compared Iraq's behaviour with that of Israel, which he said had readied between 12 and 16 nuclear weapons for deployment during the 1967 Middle East war but had not used them.