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F. Leon

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Chemical made at bombed Sudanese factory had commercial uses

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (AFP) - The chemical precursor of a nerve agent that
Washington claimed was made at a Sudanese chemical factory it destroyed in
a missile attack last week could be used for commercial products, the New
York Times said Thursday.

The chemical, traces of which US intelligence found in soil samples
outside the factory before the bombing, could be used "in limited
quantities for legitimate commercial purposes," the daily said citing the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The group, which oversees a treaty banning chemical weapons, said the
chemical -- identified by the acronym EMPTA -- could be used in fungicides
and anti-microbial agents and not just in the production of the nerve
agent VX.

However, the organization said it was not aware at present of any
commercial product on the market that contained the chemical.

One Pentagon official quoted by the Times said the treaty organization was
referring to possible uses of EMPTA, but actually found it has no
commercial application.

"Just because you identify a chemical agent for commercial uses, that does
not mean anyone makes it," said the official, who was not identified.

The Sudanese government and employees of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical
complex in Nairobi have denied that the plant produced chemical weapons.

And Iraq, which US officials quoted in The New York Times Tuesday accused
of helping Sudan produce deadly nerve agents, denied any such connection.

Iraqi UN ambassador Nizar Hamoon told reporters Tuesday in New York that
Iraq's only contact with the plant had been through "pharmaceutical
contracts" in the context of a humanitarian oil-for-food programme,
permitted under the terms of the UN embargo of Iraq.

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