Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix said Thursday that the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) remains ready to resume work as an independent verifier for any findings in Iraq or to conduct long-term monitoring.

Presenting final report at an open council session, the UNMOVIC chairman said UN inspectors would go back to Iraq for the above-mentioned purposes, "should the council so decide."

He said the core expertise and experience available within UNMOVIC remain a valuable asset and this "might be of particular value in the field of biological weapons and missiles for which there exists no international verification organization."

UN arms inspectors withdrew from Iraq on the eve of the US-led invasion on March 19, and their return has been put on hold indefinitely due to strong objection from the United States.

But UN resolution 1483 passed last month opened the possibility of their return. It says the council would revisit the mandate of UNMOVIC and Iraq's complete disarmament needs independent verification.

In his report, Blix reiterated that UNMOVIC had not "at any time during the inspections in Iraq found evidence of the continuation or resumption of proscribed items -- whether from pre1991 or later."

But he stressed there remain long lists of proscribed items unaccounted for despite inspections or Iraqi explanations.

He said it was "not justified to jump to the conclusion that something exists just because it is unaccounted for."

The lack of finds by inspectors could be because the items were" unilaterally destroyed" by the Iraqi authorities or else because "they were effectively concealed by them," he said.

But Blix expressed his belief that it should be possible to establish the truth about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in post-war Iraq, "in which there is full access and cooperation, and in which knowledgeable witness should no longer be inhibited to reveal what they know."

Blix indicated earlier he would retire after his current contract with the UN expires at the end of June.

After the open meeting, US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte,while taking reporters' questions, insisted that he believe there was WMD in Iraq. And he declined to foresee whether the UN inspectors could return to Iraq.

The United States and Britain launched a military operation against Iraq in March on the grounds that Iraq possessed and concealed WMD. Currently, a so-called US-British survey group is in search of WMD in Iraq.

Council President Sergey Lavrov of Russia said the council members expressed thanks to Blix for his work and leadership. He said UNMOVIC would remain a UN subsidiary until its mandate was reviewed.

IBM introduces new database for medium-sized companies

International Business Machines Corp. on Thursday rolled out a new full-function database product for medium-sized businesses, claiming it is easier to use and 30 percent cheaper than similar products on the market.

IBM said its new database, DB2 Express, installs itself with no mouse clicks required and offers 65 automation tools, including the technology that monitors the system's health and automatically supplies expert advice. It offers wizards to walk users through various tasks, such as expanding the system's capabilities.

DB2 Express, which runs on Linux and Windows and is available in all major languages, is aimed at companies with 100 to 1,000 employees. IBM priced the software at 499 US dollars for a base server package, with an additional licensing cost of 99 dollars per user.

For a company with 50 users of a particular application, the offering is 5,449 dollars, compared to 7,967 dollars for MicrosoftSQL Server 2000, IBM said.

"With today's announcement of DB2 Express, our partners can now tell small and medium sized business customers that there is a database alternative that costs less to own, is easy to use, offers better support, and co-exists with a variety of computing platforms," said Janet Perna, general manager, data management solutions, IBM Software Group.

IBM hopes its DB2 Express will further boost the number of users of its DB2 Universal Database, which the company says currently has more than 60 million users from 425,000 companies worldwide.

eBay to collect tax from European sellers

eBay Inc., the world's biggest online auction company, announced Thursday that it will collect value-added taxes (VAT) from sellers in Europe to comply with new European Union regulations.

The San Jose-based company said the VAT will vary according to the country where the seller lives, ranging from 15 percent in Luxembourg to 25 percent in Denmark.

eBay said the taxes apply only to items sold within the EU and will not affect purchases in North America or elsewhere.

eBay does not collect taxes on behalf of users in the United States, but advises sellers it is their responsibility to pay taxes. Winning bidders are supposed to pay the tax rate in the seller's state or county, if any, but few vendors charge more than a shipping fee.

Transactions outside the US rose to 29 percent of eBay's revenue during the first quarter from 21 percent in the previous year, according to the company.

EU imposes diplomatic sanctions on Cuba

The European Union on Thursday imposed diplomatic sanctions on Cuba to protest against the deplorable actions taken recently by the Cuban authorities.

A statement issued by the Greek EU Presidency said the actions taken by Cuba recently not only "violated" fundamental freedoms in the country, but also deprived civilians of the ultimate human right, that of life. It expressed regret that the Cuban authorities broke the de-facto moratorium on the death penalty.

According to the statement, the sanction measures include limiting bilateral high-level governmental visits, reducing the profile of member states' participation in cultural events, inviting Cuban dissidents at national days celebrations and re-evaluating the EU common position.