Covert stocks would undermine the global plan to exterminate the microbe, and the very existence of hidden stockpiles would be a signal that the countries holding them are interested in the development of germ weapons for war or terrorism.

In the past three months they have apprehended more than a dozen insurgents and seized a half-dozen hidden stockpiles containing more than 1,000 grenades and mines, matériel that American officers say was used to replenish fighters in Mosul.

Former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay told the Associated Press that "he doubted the shell or the nerve agent came from a hidden stockpile, although he didn't rule out that possibility."

The statement also pledged "to complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use" - a reference to the reputedly vast hidden stockpiles of weapons kept by the group.

ALL the best playwrights have their own hidden stockpile of worst plays.

Their bitterest enemies told cautionary tales of the Conjoiners' hidden stockpile of ultimate weapons, doomsday devices so ferocious in their destructive capability that they had hardly been tested, and had certainly never been used in any actual engagements.

As the power of the spice monopoly fades and the hidden stockpiles make their mark, new powers will appear throughout our realm.

Over the years, his sietch had prospered, the population had not decreased, and their hidden stockpiles of water grew with every cycle of the moons.

He should state plainly that all Saddam Hussein has to do is carry out the promise that won his defeated forces a merciful cease-fire: Open Iraq to complete, ongoing inspection, and destroy his hidden stockpiles.

Last Thursday, the I.R.A., which had been observing a cease-fire for several years, said it had agreed to a plan to put its hidden stockpiles of automatic rifles, Semtex explosives and other weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use."