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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5524644

Iraq Had Talks on Buying Uranium for Nukes -FT
Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:12 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq was among several countries in negotiations to buy supplies of illicit uranium from Niger at least three years before the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Intelligence officers learned between 1999 and 2001 that smugglers planned to sell illicitly mined uranium from the West African country to several states, including Iraq, the newspaper reported, citing senior European intelligence sources.

Although the European intelligence material suggested a proactive role by the sellers, intelligence officials said that Iraq actively sought supplies, the FT said.

In the run-up to the war against Iraqi, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair both accused Saddam of trying to buy uranium from Niger as part of a program to build nuclear weapons.

But their assertions were widely dismissed after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said documents meant to support the claims were clearly forged.

Although the United States later retracted the accusation, Britain stuck to its guns and continued to declare it had additional evidence not seen by the IAEA. The accusation formed part of Britain's September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction which Blair used to justify going to war.

The FT said the smugglers planned to sell uranium mined illicitly in Niger to Iran, Libya, China and North Korea.

Despite evidence that it was supplied to at least two of those countries, it was not clear if talks with Iraq ever led to exports, the report added.

The intelligence officials said human intelligence sources showed there was sufficient evidence to conclude the West African country was the center of a international uranium smuggling operation.

"The sources were trustworthy. There were several sources, and they were reliable sources," an unidentified official involved in the European intelligence gathering operation told the paper.

To date, despite widespread searches in Iraq, there have been no discoveries of an active program to build weapons of mass destruction.