US Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks, the spokesman, said the missiles were detected being fired within Iraq and the coalition forces would try to locate and destroy all Iraqi missile launchers and weapons system.

He said the United States and its coalition partners were fully convinced that Iraq did have biological or chemical weapons, adding such weapons of mass destruction might be used by the Iraqi military in the future combat.

He said Iraq might have told its forces to be ready to use chemical weapons at some point, but said they had no knowledge of any command actually to do so.

Iraq has always denied that it has weapons of mass destruction. Chief UN weapons inspectors said on Thursday at the UN headquarters in New York that there are no prohibited weapons used in the current Iraq war.

"We have seen indications through a variety of sources and reporting means that first orders have been given that at a certain point chemical weapons might be used," said Brooks.

As to the issue of humanitarian aid to Iraqi people, Brooks said there had been some problems with the humanitarian aid because of the mines planted near the southern Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr.

He said air-drops of relief goods for the Iraqi needy people were still going on, but those were insufficient.

However, he said, since maritime forces have cleared mines from waterways to facilitate aid delivery, British warship Sir Galahad has arrived at Umm Qasr to deliver more aid for Iraqi people.

This is the first ship bringing humanitarian aid to Iraq since the US-led invasion began last Thursday.

The Sir Galahad, a British naval supply vessel carrying 200 tons of food, medicine and blankets and also water, docked in Iraq's only deepwater port at 4:28 p.m. (1328 GMT).

The arrival of the ship was designed to show that Washington and London are sincere in saying that the nine-day-old war is against President Saddam Hussein and not ordinary Iraqis, observers here said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2003)