UN experts set for inspection as debate on WMDs widens

Meanwhile, with occupation forces struggling to control unrest in the country, Iraq's top US overseer Paul Bremer opened a round of talks on Iraq's political future that seemed to please several former exile groups involved.

The seven inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived Friday after chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix publicly questioned the credibility of the coalition experts charged with searching out Iraq's arsenal.

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It was not immediately clear when they would actually head for the site.

US Navy Lieutenant David Gai, a nuclear disposal expert with the new group being deployed to step up the coalition's hunt for banned weapons, said after the IAEA team's arrival "I anticipate that it will be in the next day or so."

IAEA team leader Brian Rens seemed to confirm that.

"We will basically establish that area is safe for us to work in" he said Friday, and go in "possibly tomorrow or the next day."

The IAEA team has a two-week mission of determining if refined uranium ore is missing from Iraq's largest nuclear complex at Tuwaitha, near Baghdad.

It is so far the only team of inspectors allowed into Iraq since UN inspectors were withdrawn shortly before the war began.

With the debate over Iraq's weapons raging on in London and Washington, it gathered pace in Australia.

Prime Minister John Howard denied his government had doctored intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.

Speaking to the Liberal party national convention in Adelaide, he also said he remained confident banned weapons would be found.

"There was no doctoring of intelligence advice by the government I lead," Howard said.