'Weapons could still be found'

It would be "premature" to conclude even now that weapons of mass destruction will never be found in Iraq, the Butler report said today.

Much of the potential evidence about the possible existence of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons may have been destroyed in the looting and disorder which followed the end of the war, it concluded.

Other evidence - and maybe even stocks of the weapons themselves - might be hidden in the sand, the report said.

"We believe it would be a rash person who asserted at this stage that evidence of Iraqi possession of stocks of biological or chemical agents, or even of banned missiles, does not exist and will never be found," the authors said.

The Butler report concluded that prior to the start of the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein's regime did have the "strategic intention" to resume banned weapons programmes when the United Nations' inspections relaxed.

It also concluded that Iraq was carrying out illicit research and development in support of that goal.

And it said that Iraq was developing ballistic missiles with a range longer than that permitted by the UN.

However, the report's authors concluded that Iraq did not have significant stocks of chemical or biological weapons in a fit state for deployment.

There was also no evidence of "co-operation" between the Iraqi regime and al Qaida, as the Joint Intelligence Committee had made clear, it added.

But the JIC's assessment of Iraq's possession of the chemical agent known as 'plague' was based on intelligence of "dubious reliability".