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Also interesting that hydrazine is referred to as a pesticide and not a rocket propellant; if my memory serves me right, the V-2s were (partially) propelled by hydrazine.

I now see that another Reuters story (not the one linked above) mentions the use of hydrazine as a propellant:

The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said.

Belgium Finds Nerve Gas Ingredient in Letters

According to this Dutch report, relayed by the BBC, hydrazine can be used to make bombs.

�� Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

BELGIAN PROBE LINKS POWDER SCARE TO IRAQ WAR OR TERROR TRIAL Source: De Standaard web site, Groot-Bijgaarden, in Dutch 5 Jun 03 BBC Monitoring International Reports June 5, 2003

Belgian investigators suspect the people who sent 10 letters containing toxic substances may be linked to Iraqi or Muslim extremist circles. They believe a phrase written in one of the envelopes may refer to the trial of 23 Muslim extremists currently on trial in Brussels. The Belgian Interior Ministry stressed that "the quantity of toxic products was not worrying". The following is the text of a report by Belgian newspaper De Standaard web site on 5 June:

Brussels: "Set our brothers free." That was the message in one of the 10 toxic powder letters which have turned up at various official bodies in our country over the past few days. Investigators are seeking the perpetrators in Iraqi or Muslim fundamentalist circles in our country. It is virtually certain that that the letters were posted in the Deinze area.

The British and Saudi Arabian embassies yesterday intercepted the last two of 10 letters sent containing the toxic products phenarsazine and hydrazine - derivatives of pesticides. On the afternoon of Monday 2 June , postmen in the post office's logistics centre in Deinze had already discovered two powder letters. They were found by chance because powder leaked out during sorting. On Tuesday, another three suspicious letters turned up in the same way at the post sorting centre in Ghent. The five letters intercepted at the post office were addressed to the prime minister, the justice and foreign affairs ministers, the court of first instance in Brussels and the US embassy.

Three other letters did reach their destinations on Tuesday: The Court of Cassation top appeal court in Brussels, Ostend airport and the Antwerp port authority.

Various people who were near the letters when they were opened showed irritation in their eyes and bronchial tubes and were taken to hospital. Two people, including a pregnant woman, were even admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure in Brussels and Ostend. The 10 letters which turned up in our country on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were in various kinds of envelopes. However, they all looked the same inside. In all the letters, there was a folded-up cardboard container with a brownish-yellow mixture of the two toxic powers in it. The cardboard containers in two of the letters bore the legend Islamic International Society. That is an existing organization which is, however, not known to the judicial authorities for terrorist activities.

According to judicial sources, there was also on at least one cardboard container in one of the letters the message "Set our brothers free. Bastards." That last message could refer to the action which is being conducted in Brussels right now against 23 Muslim extremists, including Nizar Trabelsi.

Moreover, hydrazine was also one of the products on Nizar Trabelsi's notorious "shopping list". Two days after the 11 September attacks, investigators found in Trabelsi's apartment a chemical formula for making a bomb. He would also use hydrazine for his bomb, it emerged from the formula.

In the meantime, the judicial investigation into the sender of the letters has been centralized in the federal public prosecutor's office in Brussels. It is being conducted by terrorism experts of the Brussels federal police in cooperation with the local police of the places where the letters were seized

"At first sight and following analysis of the letters' addressees, we seem to have to seek the perpetrators in Muslim fundamentalist circles or those of people who were opposed to the US arms transports from our country to Iraq," federal public prosecutor's office spokesperson Lieve Pellens says.

As a precautionary measure, the police also informed the embassies of France, Israel, Spain and Germany yesterday that they should watch out for suspicious envelopes.

The first trails to the perpetrators seem to run in the direction of Deinze. The judicial authorities concentrated their investigation on that area yesterday. The two letters which arrived at the logistic centre in Deinze yesterday were posted around there. That is confirmed by post office spokesman Francois Dorrekens.

"Letters from the mail boxes of Deinze, Aalter and Nevele end up at the Deinze logistic centre," he says. "Letters which have to go from Deinze to Brussels then pass through the Ghent sorting centre." It is, of course, also not impossible that the sender of the letter posted the letters in Deinze but himself comes from somewhere else.

Post office employees have been advised by their management to be especially on the alert for further powder letters over the next few days.

"Immediately wash your hands thoroughly with water, go and breathe in fresh air outside and change your clothes. That should be enough," Dorrekens says.

The Interior Ministry's Crisis Centre also distributed a statement yesterday in which it said that there is no reason for the population to worry.

"The envelopes were addressed to various authorities, not to citizens. Moreover, the quantity of toxic products was not worrying," it said.