"The material -- natural or low-enriched uranium -- is not sensitive from a proliferation perspective and is consolidated at a storage facility near the Tuwaitha complex south of Baghdad," Melissa Fleming, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told AFP.

She stressed last month's visit had nothing to do with weapons inspections. "WMD (weapons of mass destruction)? It was not the purpose of their trip," she said.

Instead, the trip was part of routine checks in Iraq since June 2003 to verify that declared nuclear material already under IAEA safeguards was not being used for an undeclared activity.

Inspectors from the IAEA and the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC) left Iraq just ahead of the US and British attack on the country in March of last year -- launched in part because of Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction.

Since Saddam's ouster, there has been no trace of such weapons despite strong assertions to the contrary prior to the war by the United States and Britain.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said the mission was essential "to draft the final report on the absence of WMDs in Iraq so that the international community can lift the (remaining) sanctions on Iraq".

The IAEA and UNMOVIC were the two UN agencies charged with searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The IAEA led the search for nuclear weapons, UNMOVIC for biological and chemical weapons, and rockets.

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