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The head of U.N. nuclear weapons inspectors said Friday that American military forces have reassured him they are properly guarding nuclear material at an Iraqi complex near Baghdad.

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said he reminded the U.S. government on Thursday that it must maintain the security of tons of nuclear material stored under seal since 1991 at the sprawling Al-Tuwaitha nuclear complex.

His comments follow reports by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on activities at the Al-Tuwaitha site this week. A Marine officer at the site told a Trib reporter embedded with a unit there that Army specialists were at the site to determine, among other things, whether plutonium is present.

IAEA inspectors have searched Al-Tuwaitha, 18 miles south of suburban Baghdad, a dozen times since November. Nuclear and radioactive materials, including tons of unenriched uranium, or "yellowcake," are stored there in sealed buildings inspectors last visited in December.

A nuclear expert familiar with U.N. inspections, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a Trib report of soldiers inspecting the uranium storage area initially raised concerns they broke the seals. Marine combat engineers guarding the site said the seals were already broken.

"If somebody else broke the seals, it's even more worrying," the official said. "I think people would have a certain amount of confidence that the U.S. military isn't going to go into that building, grab a bunch of drums, load it on a truck and drive away with it. I wouldn't have the same confidence with looters."

While it would not be easy to convert the uranium into a nuclear weapon, other radiological materials at the site could be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb," he said.

Specialists from a Pentagon team inspecting the site Thursday told U.S. Marine combat engineers guarding the facility that they found materials they believed could be plutonium.

The facility has been known for decades as the headquarters of Iraq's nuclear program. Israel bombed a reactor there in 1981 because it believed Iraq was close to producing weapons-grade plutonium. U.S. forces bombed Al-Tuwaitha again in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War.

Physicist David Albright -- president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a think tank in Washington, D.C. -- said U.N. teams would have more credibility searching for weapons materials than U.S. military teams, whose soldiers are probably "stressed out" from the war, he said. Reports of suspected chemical weapons discoveries, later proved false, have made the Americans look bad, he said.

"I think that job (the search for weapons) is not being done very well. The Pentagon, I think, is kind of messing up on this, and I think the only way to solve this is to send the (U.N.) inspectors back," Albright said.

Albright, who was with U.N. inspection teams in Iraq from 1992 to 1997, said he believes that Saddam Hussein was trying to create nuclear weapons but that the program was probably small.

To get plutonium, Iraq would either have to manufacture it in a reactor or centrifuge -- which inspectors have not found -- or buy it, he said.

U.S. military spokespersons would not confirm whether plutonium was found at Al-Tuwaitha or whether U.N. inspectors would be invited back to the site.

"We are far more concerned with being accurate about it than being fast," said Marine Lt. Josh Rushing, of U.S. Central Command in Qatar.

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Thursday at a briefing that initial reports from the field are often disproved. "Sometimes things test positive then turn out to be negative," she said. "We're taking our time."

The former head of Saddam's nuclear weapons program, Khidhir Hamza, said that if Iraq had acquired plutonium, the regime would have been foolish to hide it at Al-Tuwaitha.

"Why keep it somewhere the inspectors were constantly visiting?" said Hamza, who defected in 1994. "The Iraqis would keep it in a residential area if they wanted to hide it."

Hamza said he had heard reports of attempts by Iraqi agents to buy various radioactive materials.

"Iraq was all over the place trying to purchase these things," Hamza said. "I wouldn't be surprised if Iraq was trying to acquire plutonium."

A key justification for the invasion was the fear of Saddam using weapons of mass destruction or giving them to terrorists. U.N. inspectors said they could find no evidence of efforts to make such weapons.

"Everyone's credibility is in the line, and that's why this is so tense in Washington," Albright said.

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