The report in the left-leaning El Pais prompted Socialist opposition leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to call for a parliamentary committee meeting to clarify whether Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar had misrepresented the intelligence information available to him.

The threat from Iraq's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction was cited as the main reason for the US-led invasion in March, which Aznar's conservative cabinet staunchly supported.

El Pais said Spain's CNI intelligence service had ruled out from the outset of the Iraqi crisis the possibility that Baghdad had the capability to build nuclear weapons.

Neither could CNI establish any close links between the former Saddam Hussein regime and al-Qaeda terrorist networks, as suggested by members of Spain's conservative government, El Pais said.

El Pais quoted CNI as saying in February that activity continued at certain Iraqi sites under investigation, and that "Iraq still has the will to develop weapons of mass destruction (especially) in chemical and biological areas as well as missiles."

But CNI also said Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, did not have the capacity to use them and posed no imminent threat that would have required immediate military action, the daily insisted.

Aznar said in a television interview in February: "You can be sure that I am telling you the truth. The Iraqi regime has weapons of mass destruction."

Both the United States and Britain, who led the war to topple Saddam's regime, have opened inquiries into how the government had used intelligence in the run-up to the war.

But Spain, which supported the war but did not contribute troops, has yet to launch such an inquiry.

Zapatero said he was requesting an urgent meeting of the parliamentary committee for Defence Secrets at which the head of CNI would testify whether intelligence reports did in fact contradict the conservative government's position.

It would be "very serious" if the government had lied to the public and parliament, Zapatero told a press conference.

"If it is confirmed that the government has flagrantly lied (it will have to face) its political responsibilities," he said.

An overwhelming majority of Spaniards opposed their government's support of the war and 75 percent of them think that US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have not told the truth about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, according to a poll on Monday on SER radio.

Some 64 percent of of the 1,000-strong sample felt that Aznar did not tell the truth, while 18 percent believed him.

About 68 percent of respondents said Aznar should not have refused to appear before parliament to clarify the Iraqi weapons issue, while 11 percent said he had been right not to.

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