US and British claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger, an important component of their assertion that Iraq has revived its efforts to produce nuclear weapons, relied on fake documents, the chief nuclear weapons inspector said yesterday.
Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the documents that formed the basis for the allegations that between 1999 and 2001 Niger and Iraq concluded an agreement over the sale of uranium were not authentic. "We have therefore concluded that these specific allegations were unfounded."
Dr ElBaradei's presentation before the UN Security Council also cast doubt on the rest of the evidence that the US and UK have made public to back claims that Iraq tried to revive its nuclear weapons programme after 1998.
"After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons programme in Iraq," he said.
But the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell,