Washington: The commission investigating the Sept 11 attacks reported today (June 16, 2004) that Osama bin Laden met with a top Iraqi official in 1994 but that it found "no credible evidence" of a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda in attacks against the United States.

In a report based on research and interviews by the commission staff, the panel said that bin Laden explored possible co-operation with Saddam Hussein even though he opposed the Iraqi leader's secular regime.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official reportedly met with bin Laden in 1994 in Sudan, the panel found, and bin Laden "is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded".

"There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda also occurred after bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship," the report said. "Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al-Qaeda and Iraq."

The panel's findings appear to contradict Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that Saddam had "long-established ties" with al-Qaeda.

In making the case for war in Iraq, officials of President George W Bush's administration frequently cited what they said were Saddam's decade-long contacts with al-Qaeda operatives.