TESTS carried out by France and Switzerland have not found any presence of vx, a poison gas on Iraqi warheads. These findings are contrary to those of the US, which had shown presence of the deadly nerve substance on the warheads. If the findings are confirmed, then Iraq's argument that the US had rigged the tests will be reinforced. In June 1998, US experts at a military testing centre at Aberdeen, Maryland had claimed that they found traces of the banned poison gas. The French and the Swiss carried out tests when the Aberdeen findings were made public and Iraq had demanded further tests outside the US.

The Iraqi warheads were discovered at a weapons destruction site in northern Iraq. The UN special commission had a tough time getting permission from Iraqi authorities to send some metals chunks dug up at sites to the US.