To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the US administration has paid its budgetary contributions to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on time. [103378]

The United States is the largest financial contributor to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). It usually pays its assessed contributions in two instalments, the first in April and the second in June. This amounts to a total of 14 million Euros, approximately 22 per cent. of the overall budget of the OPCW. Furthermore, towards the end of 2002 the US gave an additional voluntary contribution to the OPCW of US$2 million.