Iraqi biolabs turn out to be hydrogen factories

The newspaper said that although some US officials have described this theory as far-fetched, the US Army has its own fleet of vehicles designed for precisely the same purpose.

They are Humvees with a large container and refrigerator-sized generator where a gun or troop transport shell should be, the report said.

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In a report released last month, the Central Intelligence Agency said the two trailers discovered in northern Iraq in April and May were some of the mobile biological weapons laboratories mentioned by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in his speech before the UN Security Council in February.

But some analysts involved in the examination of the vehicles reject that conclusion, pointing out that thorough inspections have failed to find any traces of anthrax, smallpox, tularemia or any other known pathogens inside the trucks, according to The Times.

One veteran intelligence official in Iraq said he was convinced that the seized trailers were indeed designed to produce hydrogen gas to fill weather balloons that were routinely used by Iraqi field artillery batteries, the paper said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the trucks did not carry autoclaves or other equipment needed to sterilize laboratory equipment, as would be needed to grow sensitive pathogens used as germ agents, according to the report.

In addition, he said, the canvas tarps covering the sides of the trucks appeared designed to be pulled away to let excess heat and gas escape during the production of hydrogen, The Times reported.