'No WMD stockpile find' in Iraq

[Talon]

'No WMD stockpile find' in Iraq

Bush administration officials say a draft report has concluded there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq.

However, they say the report does claim there is evidence that Saddam Hussein intended to resurrect his weapons programmes in the future.

The report, which is not yet finished, is being written by top US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer.

It is expected to be completed and published within weeks.

The first draft of Mr Duelfer's report appears to back the view of his predecessor, David Kay.

Mr Kay said, when he stepped down in January, that "we were probably all wrong about whether Iraq had stockpiles of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons".

Poison

But though he has found no stockpiles, Mr Duelfer is said by officials in the Bush administration to have unearthed other evidence.

They say the evidence shows Iraq was developing test amounts of chemical weapons and researching how to produce the poison ricin, perhaps for assassinations rather than mass killings.

There is also said to be evidence that Iraq intended to reinstitute full weapons of mass destruction programmes in the future.

The document will stop short of offering a final judgement about the situation before the war.

It might leave open the possibility that illicit weapons could have been moved to other countries.

With more than 10,000 boxes of documents still to be translated and studied, the Iraq Survey Group will continue its work, the official said, and may have more to say in the future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3664838.stm