United Nations inspectors aren’t likely to find evidence of nuclear weapons hidden in Iraq, a Kansas University professor predicted.

Philip Schrodt said biological weapons, but more likely chemical weapons, are in Iraq’s storage facilities.

“I think if the inspectors find something big, it will probably be the chemical weapons,” said Schrodt, who teaches courses on U.S. defense policy and international politics and conflict. “The likelihood that he’s gotten rid of every single one of those strikes me as pretty unlikely. So, they’re probably there.”

The Los Angeles Times this week quoted an unidentified United Nations arms inspector as saying the inspection team had found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cited the report, saying there was “no basis” for a U.S. war against Iraq.

Schrodt said discovery of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by U.N. inspection teams could trigger Saddam Hussein’s demise without a U.S.-led invasion.

He said evidence of banned weapons and the prospect of a devastating military offensive against Iraq might prompt a “reasonable group” or coalition to get rid of Saddam.

The evidence also would bolster U.S. credibility.

“The U.N. inspectors go in, they discover these weapons of mass destruction, so it’s clear the United States was not calling wolf,” Schrodt said.

But a U.S. invasion of Iraq without U.N. support would be a mistake, Schrodt said. The U.S. military could get bogged down in a conflict similar to Vietnam.

Schrodt said a unilateral attack by the United States also could lead to the overthrow of pro-U.S. regimes in Jordan and Egypt.

He said the U.S. armed forces appeared hesitant to get involved in Iraq without assistance of allies because American troops were spread thin.

“It’s Korea and Afghanistan,” Schrodt said. “And we still have 10,000 troops in Bosnia and Kosovo. It’s stressing us.”

He said the 1991 Gulf War and the NATO effort in Kosovo in 1999 proved that the Unites States military was better equipped to lead a multinational operation rather than act on its own.

“We’re just not set up to do unilateral military operations the way we were, say, 100 years ago in the Spanish-American War. We depend on allies. They could do it, but it’s not the way they’re set up to do things.”.