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Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

London: After failing to get any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the US and Britain have decided to delay indefinitely the publication of a full report on the controversial issue, media reported on September 14.

Efforts by the Iraq Survey Group, an Anglo-American team of 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts, to scour Iraq for the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical or biological weapons have so far ended in failure, 'The Sunday Times' claimed in its report.

It had been expected that a progress report would be published on September 15 but MPs on the British Parliament's Security and Intelligence Committee have been told that even this has been delayed and no new date set.

British Defence intelligence sources have confirmed that the final report, which is to be submitted by David Kay, the Survey Group's leader, to George Tenet, head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had been delayed and may not necessarily even be published, the paper said.

In July, Kay suggested on US television that he had seen enough evidence to convince himself that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had had a programme to produce weapons of mass destruction.

He expected to find "strong" evidence of missile delivery systems and "probably" evidence of biological weapons.

But last week British officials said they believed Kay had been "kite-flying" and that no hard evidence had been uncovered.

The hunt for weapons is seen in London and Washington as a vital step in convincing an increasingly sceptical public that the war was justified.

PTI