Iraq's government admitted today it had not captured the most wanted Saddam Hussein aide still on the run.
It was an embarrassing climbdown a day after top officials reported Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri had been seized in a raid by Iraqi forces.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that tests showed that a man in Iraqi custody was not al-Douri, who was sixth on a US list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's regime and had a $10 million price on his head.
"The person that has been arrested, after appropriate medical tests, was not al-Douri but somebody related to him, who is also wanted by the state," the ministry said.
The statement followed 24 hours of confusion during which the Defence Ministry and two Iraqi ministers said al-Douri had been captured near the town of Tikrit, Saddam's former powerbase, only to be contradicted by other officials.
The confusion raised new questions about the effectiveness and unity of Iraq's interim government as it prepares for national elections in January and tries to crush a stubborn insurgency and tackle a wave of kidnappings.
It was the second time the government has had to make a major retraction since it took over formal sovereignty in June.
Last month the government said police had entered a shrine in Najaf without a shot being fired to recapture it from rebel Shia militiamen holed up inside. The report turned out to be false and the uprising in Najaf did not end until the following week, when Iraq's most revered cleric brokered a peace deal.