A report by Opec forecasting that demand for oil will fall next year and a separate study showing US stockpiles growing were the trigger for another round of selling on the oil markets on Wednesday, driving prices down further.
Their weapons appeared to have come from Libyan stockpiles released when Muammar Gaddafi was toppled.
In the markets, all this news was taking its toll: prices for corn and wheat were spiking upwards, rising almost a third on global markets as forecasters suggested grain stockpiles could shrink by as much as 50% as the summer wears on.
In 2004, in a statement to the Butler inquiry, Blair said: "I have to accept, as the months have passed, it seems increasingly clear that at the time of invasion, Saddam did not have stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons ready to deploy".
Those include slashing nuclear stockpiles and writing rules for warfare in the 21st century that are worthy of America, a nation built on the supremacy of the law.Important countries and regions are glaringly absent from the "to-do" lists circulating in official Washington and its more influential think-tanks.
While stockpiles in the thousands are obviously overkill, I would rather not go back to the days of large-scale symmetrical warfare, the kind of which destroys continents and nations.
Key milestones for the verification of chemical-weapons stockpiles and the functional destruction of the facilities where they have been produced were met on time (October 27th and November 1st, respectively).
The convention has been signed by 107 governments and ratified by 37. Of the 87 countries which have had stockpiles of cluster weapons at some point, 38 are signatories.
But an early plan to rejig agriculture, beginning by selling 15m tonnes of grain stockpiles, looks hopeful.
We both married above ourselves, we both have trouble with the English language, we both have big biceps well, two out of three aren't bad".Mr Bush campaigning in California, August 12thMea culpa"See, I thought we were going to find stockpiles.
Most analysts expect a sharp rebound during the next few months, and as companies prepare for the uncertainties of the millennium bug they may well add to their stockpiles.
