Failure to find banned Iraqi arms delays inspectors' report: press

LONDON (AFP) Sep 14, 2003
The United States and Britain have decided to delay indefinitely the publication of a full report on Iraqs weapons of mass destruction after inspectors found no evidence that any such arms exist, a Sunday newspaper reported.

The London-based Sunday Times said efforts by the Iraq Survey Group, an Anglo-American team of 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts, to scour Iraq for the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical or biological weapons had so far ended in failure.

The newspaper reported British defence intelligence sources had confirmed that the group's final report, which is to be submitted to George Tenet, head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had been delayed and may not necessarily even be published.

It had been expected that a progress report would be published Monday but MPs on the British parliament's security and intelligence committee had been told that even this had been delayed and no new date set, the Sunday Times said.

Iraq's refusal to give up its alleged weapons of mass destruction was cited by London and Washington as a main reason for going to war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq in March.

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