"We are working to transform al-Tuwaitha into a peaceful scientific site to serve the Iraqis and to participate in research and studies on a global level," Omar told AFP.

"Work is well underway and, at the end of March, we will unveil the first renovated buildings," he said.

The minister estimated that the total cost of rebuilding the site, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Baghdad, would be about 30 million dollars.

It would be carried out in two phases, but Omar was unable to say when the job would be completed.

"We hope to invite journalists and locals to the site this year to receive information on our latest scientific progress and to look at our laboratories and experiments," he said.

The old site, which comprised more than 100 buildings and was once the hub of nuclear research under ousted president Saddam Hussein, was bombed in 1981 by the Israelis who suspected that Iraq was making an atomic bomb.

UN weapons inspectors visited the site, which was then being used to produce pharmaceutical products, before the US-led invasion of Iraq in March

The area was looted after the collapse of Saddam's regime and UN experts revisited it in June to see whether radioactive material had disappeared.

WAR.WIRE