UN: Syria's cooperation with inspectors has been good

Syria's cooperaiton with UN inspectors "has been good," and the inspectors have received technical diagrams and other information which they have been studying, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Friday. Speaking at the daily press, Nesirky said the inspectors were expected to make site visits in the coming days. He was speaking after Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ahmet Uzumcu told the body's Executive Council that its Technical Secretariat had received information from Syria that was "additional" to the disclosure on its chemical weapons programme which Damascus had submitted on September 21. Nesirky indicated that the advance team included inspectors from the OPCW and other UN staff who provide logistical, security, translation and other support. He announced that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in consultation with Uzumcu, will present a report with recommendations to the Security Council in the coming days on a larger presence in Syria. The report is scheduled to be issued on Monday, and the Council is expected to discuss it on Thursday upon its members return from a trip to the Great Lakes Region countries, including he Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda. Asked why the earlier investigation team, led by Ake Sellstrom, did not go to Khan Al-Asal, as requested by Syria last March, Nesirky said that there were a number of factors, including that, with the passage of time, there was a deterioration of material for samples to determine whether chemical weapons were used or not, adding that the team was able to obtain "useful" information by other means anyway