A US team hunting for weapons of mass destruction is winding down its operations in Iraq and is expected to leave the war-torn country next month.

The team, formally known as the 75th Exploitation Task Force, has been described from the very start as the principal component of the US plan to discover and display the forbidden Iraqi weapons, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The team, with an effort to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is winding down its operations without finding proof that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of such kind of arms, the paper quoted participants as saying.

The United States started the war on Iraq without the authorization of the United Nations under the pretext of Iraq having hiding weapons of mass destruction.

But the departure of the team expected next month "marks a milestone in frustration for a major declared objective of the war," the paper said.

The task force, consisting of biologists, chemists, arms treaty enforcers, nuclear operators, computer and document experts and special forces troops, arrived in Iraq with high expectations that they would find hundreds of tons of biological and chemical agents, missiles and rockets to deliver the agents and evidence of an ongoing program to build a nuclear bomb.

All the stuff were mentioned by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Feb. 5 when he appeared at the UN Security Council to seek UN authorization to disarm Iraq by force.

However, many task force members said that scores of fruitless missions broke that confidence, according to the newspaper.

The United States also opposes the suggestion that inspectors of the world bodies return to Iraq to look for weapons of mass destruction together with US forces.

San Francisco airport worker slightly injured in minor explosion

A baggage handler at San Francisco International Airport in California was slightly injured Sunday morning when a container with electrical equipment exploded.

The explosion occurred when passengers were boarding the Hawaii-bound United Airlines flight 33, airport spokesman Michael McCarron said.

"The baggage handler was moving bags when the hinges flew off" a fiberglass shipping container belonging to a passenger that contained electrical equipment related to avionics, McCarron said.

The passengers heard a loud noise and felt the boarding galley shudder as they walked onto the plane. The Boeing 757 was immediately evacuated after the incident, and the passengers were rerouted to another Hawaii-bound flight.

None of the passengers were injured, and the handler's injuries were not serious enough to warrant medical treatment, McCarron added.

The owner of the package was detained and questioned by authorities, but nothing "unusual" was found.

British cabinet splits over euro entry

The British government's fragile public unity over the euro was shattered Saturday as a cabinet minister challenged Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's policy on the European single currency, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

Helen Liddell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, became the first Cabinet minister to attack openly the Chancellor's forthcoming verdict, which is based on the Treasury Ministry's self-imposed economic tests on benefit of the euro entry, that Britain is not yet ready to enter the euro.

"We could have a situation in which 24 countries are in one currency and we are in another. That has implications for inward investment, in jobs and we need to specify what that cost could be," Liddell was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

"This is probably one of the most momentous decisions we are going to make. It should be for the whole Cabinet. It cannot simply be delivered to us by the Chancellor like the Budget," she said.

Ministers in favor of rapid entry to the euro disclosed that Liddel's remarks, which she will amplify in a speech Monday in Edinburgh, had been authorized by Prime Minister Tony Blair's office as part of a final push to force Brown to leave open the option of entering the euro, the newspaper said.

This development came as Brown is to publish the Treasury's assessment of the economic tests for euro entry before June 7.

Brown is under growing pressure from the pro-euro lobby to set a date for a referendum on the issue.

In an interview to a local television program on Sunday, Brown responded to concerns from the pro-euro camp that he would support Britain's euro membership under the right economic circumstances.

"I have always been pro-Europe. And by history, by geography, by economics we are very much part of Europe," he said.

Israel delays talks on roadmap implementation

Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Minister of External Affairs Nabil Shaath said on Monday that Israel had delayed the talks concerning the implementation of the roadmap peace plan for another ten days.

Shaath said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delayed the talks until his scheduled meeting with US President George W. Bush in Washington on May 20, saying "this means another 10 days of suffering for the Palestinians."

Shaath reiterated the PNA's call on Israel to submit a formal response to the roadmap, which Sharon claimed Israel needs to implement some modifications before giving the final response.

Shaath said: "Israel has been talking about taking some practical steps in order to alleviate the Palestinians suffering but nothing has changed, on the contrary we expect Israel to escalate its military measures because this is how they usually deal with peace initiatives."

Israel said on Sunday that it will lift the siege on the Gaza Strip in order to allow hundreds of Palestinians who work inside Israel of reaching their workplaces, while Israeli Army tightened its closure imposed on the Strip Sunday night.

Israeli Army also carried out another military operation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, just few hours after the meeting between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Collin Powell Sunday in Jericho, killing two Palestinians.

Shaath, a member of the Palestinian delegation led by Abbas in the Jericho talks, said that Powell didn't bring any good news from his talks with Sharon, adding "Israel refuses to implement the roadmap."