WMD report to raise new questions

By Jonathan Marcus
BBC defence correspondent

The failure of the US-led Iraq Survey group to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is proving a significant embarrassment to President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On Thursday, David Kay - one of the leaders of the team - is due to give his interim report in a closed-door session to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in Washington.

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KEY QUOTES:

"But one thing is clear - so far no weapons have been found."

"But with no actual weapons discovered Mr Kay's evidence raises another fundamental question. Why did the US and British government's seemingly fall so readily for Saddam Hussein's alleged bluff, if bluff it really was?"

"It is clear from both the Hutton inquiry into the death of the weapons expert David Kelly in Britain and a succession of revelations in Washington that the intelligence material on Iraq was often poor and inconclusive."

"Above all the imminence of the threat posed by Iraq was greatly over-stated."