Just days after returning from Iraq, Republican Senator John Warner insisted a current review of US intelligence procedures by the Senate Intelligence Committee is more than adequate, despite Democrat calls that he initiate a probe in the Senate's Armed Services committee which he chairs.

Speaking on NBC television's "Meet the Press" program Warner explained that he does not feel the controversy over Iraqi weapons warrants a new investigation.

"The Intelligence Committee is conducting ... a very thorough review. All the documents have been given to the committee by Director (George) Tenet of the CIA.

"We're going to await the findings of the intelligence committee ... then we will determine whether or not we have to make further oversight investigation."

Based on what he has heard so far however, Warner said, "I do not find that the evidence -- from the president down to the secretaries of State, Defense, CIA director -- trying to manipulate" intelligence."

His Democratic counterpart on the committee, Senator Carl Levin, who has been highly critical of Warner's decision not to launch an inquiry, has spearheaded his own investigation.

"He's made the decision, which he has the right to make as chairman not to do it at this time, but I also have the right as the ranking minority (top Democrat) to direct my staff to pursue that inquiry, and that's exactly what we have done," he said.

"There's been some very deeply troubling evidence that the intelligence has been stretched and exaggerated. And that's something which needs to be investigated."

Disagreements between Democrats and Republicans have taken on an increasingly rancorous tone, as the search for Iraq's alleged weapons program continues to turn up empty.

Despite months of searching, US teams that have yet to discover evidence Iraq had or was developing chemical, nuclear or biological weapons -- President George W. Bush's prime rationale for the March 20 US-led invasion.

Levin said the issue has repercussions on future US military initiatives, particularly those that require the cooperation of international partners.

"The credibility of intelligence is so important. We cannot exaggerate it. If it's been exaggerated, that endangers the security of this nation and will jeopardize our actions in the future," he said.

Despite those warnings, Warner predicted US intelligence will soon expose deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's banned weapons.

"What they found to date -- I cannot discuss it -- but it confirms in my mind beyond any doubt whatsoever, that this man did possess the capability to build, put together and possibly had weapons standing by that he could have used," said the Virginia Republican.

Meanwhile, a former US ambassador hired by the Central Intelligence Agency to probe whether Iraq acquired uranium for its nuclear weapons program from Niger wrote in the New York Times that he believes the US government twisted some prewar intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Baghdad.

"Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat," Joseph Wilson, who served as Washington's ambassador to Gabon from 1992-1995, said in the article.

Wilson was asked by the CIA to investigate reports that Niger sold Iraq processed uranium in the 1990s that could be used to make nuclear weapons. He concluded after an eight-day probe there that "it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place."

Another senator, Democrat Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, said he was disturbed by Wilson's allegations, but said he was not prepared to conclude that intelligence information was manipulated or misrepresented.

"There is also an enormous danger in coming to that conclusion short of really careful facts," he told CNN.

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