I'm convinced someone may die soon in one of these insane car chases - forget weapons of mass destruction, the real threat to human life here are the Baghdad Wacky Races, or should I call them the demolition derbies?

Because occasionally, a hapless, dazed Iraqi motorist gets caught up in the frenzied rush of dozens of four wheel drives, his car simply shunted off to the side of the road.
...
Dimitry Perricos, the senior inspector of the biological and chemical weapons team, picked up a jar.

"What's this?" he asked, suspiciously. "Marmalade", he was told.

Inevitably the press corps cracked jokes about it - we'd heard of mustard gas, we said, but perhaps the dear old Iraqis have come up with a new weapon of mass destruction - marmalade gas.

It all seemed slightly surreal. We wondered if this really is the way you're going to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - going from room to room, cupboard to cupboard, fridge to fridge.

We could be chasing after the inspectors for a very long time to come.

The Iraqi officials were outraged with the inspection of the palace - one of their so-called "sensitive" sites. For the inspectors, the honeymoon was now over.

» Surreal search for Iraq's weapons