May 8, 7:48 AM EDT

Pentagon to Increase Team on Weapons Hunt

By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 2,000 more experts are being sent to Iraq to help look for banned weapons as well as regime leaders, terrorists and more.

The team is more than triple the size of the force now searching for weapons and larger than was previously described. It will be headed by a two-star general in defense intelligence, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The Defense Department also confirmed it is investigating what officials said may be the most promising discovery so far - a trailer truck they say could turn out to be the first mobile biological lab recovered since the start of the war to disarm the government of Saddam Hussein.

The Bush administration alleged that Iraq had chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and said the main reason for the war was to destroy them. Despite weeks of searches at more than 100 sites, officials have reported finding nothing conclusive so far.

Although Pentagon officials suggested some Iraqi units were armed with chemical weapons just days before the war, none were found when those units were overrun. Officials said again Wednesday at a Pentagon news conference that finding the "smoking gun" will take time.

Asked if prewar intelligence was flawed, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby said it was far too soon to tell.