UN denies 'bomb blunder' cover-up

Many children were among those injured

The United Nations has denied covering up a report into a US air attack on an Afghan village which killed dozens of people at a wedding party.

There is no sign or suspicion on our part of any cover-up

UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard

The Afghan Government says that 48 civilians died and more than 100 others were injured when US planes bombed targets in central Uruzgan Province on 1 July.

A UN report - compiled by aid workers - is said to have suggested that US investigators removed evidence from the scene, hours after the attack.

The report is also said to dispute US claims that one of its AC-130 gunship had come under fire.

The US said its gunship was responding to hostile fire

The report had been due for release on Tuesday, but UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said it had been handed over to the US and Afghan Governments.

The UN aid workers, he said, had no investigatory qualifications that would have allowed them to make a judgement on the attack.

'No evidence'

Mr Eckhard said: "We sent humanitarian people there to assess humanitarian needs.

The UN visited the site days after the incident

"In the process, they spoke to people and they picked up information that we judged would be valuable to someone conducting an investigation, but we also realised the limitations of the value of that evidence.

"Its value was that it was fresh reports of what people said they saw, but their competence to judge its relevance to an in-depth professional investigation was in question."

The problem for the UN is that the information gathered by its workers was leaked before officials could cast doubt on its credibility.

That has fuelled speculation that the UN has buckled from pressure from the US authorities to withhold vital evidence about the attack on the wedding party.

But Mr Eckhard said: "I have seen no evidence of communication between either the US Government or the Afghan Government trying to influence our conduct of this fact-finding mission or of what we do with the results.

"There is no sign or suspicion on our part of any cover-up."

The Americans - who have set their own team to the area - say they will need more time to collect evidence and make a full report.

But locals say US officials arrived just hours after the raid, taking photographs and filming the scene and the bodies.