The capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will not bring any help in tracking down weapons of mass destruction (WMD)in Iraq,the former United Nations chief weapons inspector,Hans Blix said here on Monday.

This is partly because Saddam had repeatedly denied such existence in Iraq and partly because Iraq has gone through fairly close inspections,Blix told the Swedish news service TT.

It was quite likely that Saddam still talked about how Iraq gotand developed WMD and how they destroyed them in the end,he said.

However,Blix believed the capture will encourage more Iraqis to give information to the occupation forces,because before that some Iraqis were still worried about the return of Saddam.This held them back from telling the truth,but now the risk no longer existed,he said.

He also hoped violence could reduce in Iraq.

The former Swedish diplomat had led the months-long UN inspections for WMD in Iraq before the war broke out.He retired on June 30from the UN Monitoring,Inspection and Verification Commission after a presidency of more than three years.