Iraq has rejected a UN weapons report that it put the VX nerve agent into itswarheads.

A presidential adviser, General Amir Al-Sadi, was quoted on Iraq TV as saying Swiss and French laboratory tests have shown beyond doubt that there were no traces of the nerve agent.

General Al-Sadi said Monday's statement by the UN's chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, was meant to deceive and procrastinate.

Mr Butler had said American laboratory tests showed evidence of VX gas in Iraqi warheads although subsequent examinations in France and Switzerland were inconclusive