* Iraq informs United States of missing explosives
* Iraq Survey Group ordered to investigate the incident

VIENNA: Nearly 380 tonnes of explosives are missing from a site near Baghdad that was part of Saddam Hussein's dismantled atom bomb programme but was never secured by the US military, the United Nations said on Monday.

The head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Muhammad ElBaradei, will immediately report the matter to the UN Security Council, Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the agency, said. The missing explosives could potentially be used to detonate a nuclear weapon or in conventional weapons, the agency said. “ElBaradei has decided to inform the Security Council today,” the spokeswoman said. The New York Times, which broke the story on Monday, said US weapons experts feared the explosives could be used in bombing attacks against US or Iraqi forces, which have come under increasing fire ahead of Iraq's elections due in January.

Fleming said ElBaradei informed Washington of the seriousness of the matter on October 15 after learning about the disappearance of the explosives on October 10. One substance found in large quantities at the Al Qaqaa facility was the explosive HMX, which Fleming said had “a potential use in a nuclear explosive device as a detonator”. The interim government of Iraq has informed the US government and international inspectors that nearly 380 tons (tonnes) of conventional explosives have gone missing from Al Qaqaa, a sensitive former military installation, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The newspaper cited White House and Pentagon officials, as well as at least one Iraqi minister, as acknowledging that the explosives vanished from the site shortly after the invasion in March 2003 amid widespread looting. reuters

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