380 tons of explosives missing from Iraqi atomic site: IAEA

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, will immediately report the matter to the UN Security Council, 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," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

The New York Times, which broke the story 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.

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been barred from most of Iraq since the war and has watched from afar as its former nuclear sites have been systematically stripped by looters.

Fleming said ElBaradei informed Washington of the seriousness of the matter on Oct. 15 after learning about the disappearance of the explosives on Oct. 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."

Prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the HMX had been sealed and tagged with the IAEA emblem while being stored at al-Qaqaa.