UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer made the call after briefing Group of Eight (G8) environment ministers here on problems in Iraq that range from water stress, air pollution from burning oil wells and oil-filled trenches to water and sanitation systems that were near-collapse and mounting piles of rubbish and medical waste.

The problems were sketched last week in a UNEP "desk report" -- a study that is based on known data but not from a trip to the country.

"These are very severe environment problems," Toepfer told a press conference, explaining that they were also a humanitarian issue and a potential threat to health.

He said it was necessary to carry out field research as soon as possible.

UNEP investigators could be swiftly sent to Iraq, Toepfer said, adding that his organisation was impartial.

Asked whether Britain and the United States would refuse the mission, he said, "I don't have any information that there will be any blocking."

The UNEP desk study said Iraq's environment had been damaged by the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, by the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 conflict, as well as by ecological abuses under Saddam Hussein's regime.

It notably called for "independent scientific investigation" to be carried out at sites hit by US depleted uranium munitions. The Pentagon insists that there is no evidence that dust from these munitions poses any danger to health or the environment.

SPACE.WIRE