Baghdad, Iraq ? A senior Iraqi general contended Thursday that the new round of U.N. weapons inspections had disproved “groundless” allegations by Western intelligence agencies that 10 Iraqi sites may be engaged in banned weapons production.

Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin called the intelligence reports “just a lie.” The inspectors have not issued their findings, however, from visits to the 10 installations.

At a news conference, Amin also was asked about an unconfirmed U.S. report that an Iraqi chemical weapon was delivered to an Islamic extremist group affiliated with al-Qaida.

“This is really a ridiculous assumption from the American administration,” he said.

The general, the Iraqi government’s chief liaison to the inspectors, spoke with reporters after a day in which the greatly reinforced corps of U.N. monitors — quadrupled to 100 this week — observed a test launch of a short-range Iraqi missile to verify it did not exceed U.N. range limits, and paid unannounced visits to a half-dozen other sites.

The U.N. inspections have resumed, after a four-year gap, under a new U.N. Security Council resolution requiring Iraq to report on nuclear, biological, chemical and missile research and production. It filed that 12,000-page U.N. declaration last weekend.

The resolution also mandates that Iraq surrender any weapons of mass destruction, which it denies having. The U.S. government says it is sure Baghdad retains such weapons, and threatens war if Iraq fails, in Washington’s view, to comply with U.N. disarmament demands.

In a round of inspections in the 1990s, after Iraq’s defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations destroyed tons of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and dismantled Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

The U.N. monitors suspected they may not have traced all the weapons, however, and recently published British and U.S. intelligence reports said new construction at old weapons sites and other activities suggested the Iraqis may have resumed making weapons of mass destruction.

In their 58 site inspections since the U.N. operation resumed, the arms monitors have visited some of the sites considered suspect.

Ten of the sites newly inspected “were allegedly said to practice and conduct some prohibited activities,” Amin said, without identifying the locations. “The visits of the inspection teams proved that those allegations are groundless.”