Iraq weapons 'will be found'

No evidence of weapons of mass destruction has been announced

Ministers are still confident Saddam Hussein's banned weapons arsenal will be found, Downing Street has said.

The comments came after US President George W Bush warned in his weekly radio address that some of the evidence about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programmes may have been looted.

Downing Street and the UK Foreign Office said on Saturday the group set up to find the weapons, had only just started work.

"We remain confident that weapons of mass destruction will be found," a Downing Street spokesman said.

Meanwhile the hunt for Saddam Hussein continues after a former top Iraqi official said he and his two sons survived the Gulf War.

Mahmud al-Tikriti told interrogators he spent time in hiding with Uday and Qusay Hussein and their father after the end of the war, according to US defence sources.

'Looting'

But the Observer newspaper claims American experts are carrying out DNA tests on human remains after the US fired missiles at a convoy believed to be carrying Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons.

On the hunt for weapons, President Bush said military and intelligence officials are interviewing scientists with knowledge of Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes.

"For more than a decade, Saddam Hussein went to great lengths to hide his weapons from the world.

"And in the regime's final days, documents and suspected weapons sites were looted and burned."

The president said the administration was determined to discover the true extent of Iraq's weapons programmes "no matter how long it takes".

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also acknowledged Iraq may have destroyed its chemical and biological arsenal before the offensive was launched.

They spoke ahead of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's appearance next week before a Commons inquiry into whether the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was exaggerated.

Mr Straw will attend two sessions where he will be questioned about the secret intelligence material.

Last week former Cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short told the inquiry UK ministers had exaggerated the evidence coming from the intelligence agencies in the run- up to the war.