"These reports that have been made public document that Iraq, according to the entire FE's evaluation, probably had biological and chemical weapons just before the war" in March 2003, FE chief Joern Olesen said.

The FE reports however caution that "any evaluation is subject to uncertainties".

And while the FE said its general opinion was that "Iraq was in possession of substances for biological and chemical combat, as well as the capacity to produce them," it acknowledged in a report dated March 15, 2003 that it had "very limited knowledge of the Iraqi chemical weapons program."

Denmark's Liberal-Conservative government was pressured to declassify the documents after former intelligence agent Frank Soeholm Grevil leaked information from them, claiming they raised questions about the credibility of the government's WMD claims.

Grevil insisted that at least 10 FE reports revealed that "no reliable information on operational weapons of mass destruction" existed in Iraq.

The Danish government was a strong ally of the United States in the US-led war on Iraq, and has insisted that the existence of an illicit weapons arsenal there justified the military strike.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Danish parliament before the start of the war on March 20, 2003 that he was convinced Iraq was in possession of weapons of mass destruction.

"This is not something we just believe. We know," he said at the time.

Rasmussen on Monday defended that statement and rejected the opposition's accusation that he "abused and manipulated" the FE documents.

"The FE's assessments show that Iraq probably had biological and chemical weapons, and that's exactly what I told parliament," Rasmussen said.

"The FE documents eliminate any suspicions that the (Danish) government supposedly had secret and undisclosed motives in the military action in Iraq," he said.

So far, there has been no trace of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, despite strenuous assertions by Washington it was certain Saddam Hussein possessed them.

Last week, Grevil, along with journalists Jesper Larsen and Michael Bjerre at conservative daily Berlingske Tidende were charged with leaking the confidential reports to the public.

Grevil gave the documents to the journalists in January of this year, and the information was published in Berlingske Tidende in February.

Grevil, who was fired from his job in March, said he leaked the documents to the journalists because he did not like the way the intelligence reports he had helped write were interpreted by the government.

The 72 pages of reports declassified on Monday, dated from March 2002 to March 2003, only give FE's evaluations of the situation. All information from foreign intelligence sources had been carefully struck from the reports "in order to protect foreign power sources".

Commenting on the publication of the reports, Grevil told Danish news agency Ritzau that "FE has suppressed too many passages, which only increases the serious doubts that there was something to hide."

The head of the FE, Joern Olesen, said meanwhile that he did "not think that (FE) was exploited by the government for political reasons."

A spokesman for the opposition Social Democratic party said he did not think the declassified documents proved the government's case.

The opposition on Monday renewed calls for an independent fact-finding committee to shed light on Denmark's engagement in the war.

WAR.WIRE