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Iraqi defector

condemned

BAGHDAD: Iraq again blamed defector General Hussein Kamel Hassan Monday for blocking cooperation between Baghdad and UNSCOM, the UN mission seeking to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

State television broadcast new tapes which it said were of Hassan telling the ruling Revolutionary Command Council in March to raise problems with UNSCOM and blacken its chairman, Rolf Ekeus.

The defector, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, also criticised Baghdad's recognition of Kuwait last year, saying it had encouraged UNSCOM to become more aggressive, the television said in a programme entitled "Here is the Truth."

Hassan had also accused the United Nations and the United States of trying to prevent any lifting of the trade embargo imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and subsequent defeat by US-led UN forces, the television said.-AFP