The spokesman for the political group, Entifadh Qanbar, said Saddam's regime had a "very sophisticated" system for concealing the weapons and that all information given to Washington had been correct at the time.

"We brought this information at a certain time and place ... Saddam had the capacity to move these weapons," he told reporters in Baghdad. "We established a very credible track record."

The United States and Britain have been dogged by controversy in recent days amid charges that they manipulated evidence about the alleged banned arms programmes to drum up support for the war.

Nearly two months after Saddam's ouster, no hard evidence of such a programme has been found in Iraq by the US-led coalition occupying the country.

INC leader Ahmad Chalabi regularly gave the US administration tip-offs from his exile headquarters in London.

Qanbar recalled the group had also provided information about mass graves of victims of Saddam's regime and that "most of it has proven to be correct and very precise."

He added: "Anybody that is questioning if this war is legitimate or not should find the answer in these mass graves."

A new coalition Iraq Survey Group of some 1,300 to 1,400 people is due here Saturday to step up the search for the alleged banned arsenal.

"I believe that these weapons sooner or later will be found," said Qanbar.

WAR.WIRE