WASHINGTON (AP) - Coalition forces have taken custody of the Iraqi scientist known as "Dr. Germ" for her work in creating weapons-grade anthrax, officials said today.

Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, who had been negotiating her surrender for days, turned herself in over the last 48 hours, said Maj. Brad Lowell of the U.S. Central Command.

U.N. weapons inspectors nicknamed Taha "Dr. Germ" because she ran the Iraqi biological weapons facility where scientists worked with anthrax, botulinum toxin and aflatoxin. A microbiologist, Taha holds a doctorate from the University of East Anglia in Britain.

She is not on the list of the 55 most wanted former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. But American forces have been trying to capture her and last month unsuccessfully raided her Baghdad home in the search for her and her husband.

Taha is married to Amer Rashid, who held top posts in Saddam's missile programs and was oil minister before the war. Rashid surrendered to U.S. forces April 28, 12 days after that Baghdad raid.

Current and former inspectors who interviewed her in the mid-1990s described her as difficult and dour. The Iraqis presented her as the head of the biological program, but inspectors suspect she may have been fronting for someone more senior. She met with U.N. teams before the war on technical issues.

Officials have captured a number of former officials who they had hoped would give information on the unconventional weapons programs the Bush administration has said the regime had.

Last week they reported the capture of Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, among the 55 most wanted and a woman officials believe played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad's biological weapons capability in the 1990s.

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said last month that Taha and her husband, Rashid, would be among "the most interesting persons" for the Americans to question. Blix's teams pulled out of Iraq shortly before the war began after 31/2 months work.

The Bush administration, which bitterly disagreed with Blix over whether Iraq has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, has not invited U.N. inspectors to take part in a continuing U.S.-led hunt for weapons. The U.N. Security Council's cease-fire resolution after the first Gulf War - which evicted Saddam forces that had invaded Kuwait - included stringent demands for the destruction of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and payment of war damages to Kuwait.

Saddam's alleged arsenal was cited by coalition leaders as one of the main reasons for going to war against Iraq.