Washington: Adding to the campaign woes of President George W Bush, Chief US weapons inspector in Iraq Charles A Duelfer has reportedly declared in a 1,000-page report that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and lacked even the means to build them when the US invaded Iraq.

According to media reports on the eve of the expected publication of the report by Iraq Survey Group led by him, Duelfer gives some consolation to the Bush Administration by saying that in his assessment, Hussein intended to reconstitute weapons of mass destruction programme if he were freed of the UN sanctions that prevented him from getting needed materials.

The Bush Administration has for some time now abandoned the initial justification that the possession of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein made the invasion urgent.

When an intensive search after the takeover of Iraq failed to yield any such weapons, it switched the argument to its ability to know Saddam Hussein's "intention".

According to leaks on newspapers and television channels, the Iraq Survey Group had uncovered Iraqi plans for ballistic missiles with ranges from 400 to 1,000 kilometre-range cruise missiles, farther than the 15-km range permitted by the UN.