This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.

On Monday, the United Nations nuclear agency reported that threehundred fifty metric tons of high explosives in Iraq were missing.The materials were kept at a storage center at Al Qaqaa nearBaghdad.

United States officials say the explosives may have disappearedbefore American forces occupied the capital. The InternationalAtomic Energy Agency, however, says American forces failed to securethem after entering Baghdad in early April of last year.

Mohammed ElBaradei is the director general of the U.N. agency. Hereported the disappearance to the Security Council on Monday. TheNew York Times newspaper and C.B.S. television had first reportedthe story that same day.

Mister ElBaradei said Iraqi officials had informed him in earlyOctober that the explosives were missing. They said the materialdisappeared sometime after American-led coalition forces tookcontrol of Baghdad.

U.N. nuclear inspectors had been supervising the explosivesbecause one possible use is to set off a nuclear bomb. Theinspectors said the explosives were still at Al Qaqaa during theirfinal visit on March ninth, before they left Iraq. The war began onMarch twentieth of last year.

Defense Department officials saythey have evidence of Iraqi military activity at Al Qaqaa before thewar began. On Thursday they released a satellite picture. They saidit showed two Iraqi trucks parked outside a storage area severaldays before the war started. American officials say this pictureproves that Iraqis were at Al Qaqaa after U.N. inspectors had leftthe country.

The Defense Department says it is investigating what happened tothe missing explosives. American officials have suggested that theexplosives were probably removed by Saddam Hussein's forces beforethe invasion. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said any largeeffort to steal the material after that would have been discovered.

Officials say more than four hundred thousand tons of ammunition,explosives and other material in Iraq have been seized or destroyed.Still, the missing explosives have become an issue in the race forthe presidential election on Tuesday.

Democratic Senator John Kerry says the missing explosives aremore evidence that the administration is doing a bad job in Iraq.President Bush accused his opponent of making "wild accusations"before the facts are known.

Adding to the dispute was a report broadcast Thursday by A.B.C.television. It showed images made by a news crew traveling with thefirst American troops to arrive at Al Qaqaa. That was on Aprileighteenth of last year, nine days after the fall of Baghdad andSaddam Hussein.

The pictures showed what appeared to be high explosives incontainers with the markings of the I.A.E.A. There is disagreement,however, if these were the same containers that held the explosivesthat are now missing.

In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk.This is Steve Ember.