Her announcement follows an independent study commissioned by the Welsh Office in response to a controversial report by independent scientists published last year.

The Green Audit research team, led by Dr Chris Busby, had concluded that there was a higher-than-normal cancer rate among children in the area.

Four times more at risk

Dr Busby suggested that youngsters up to four years old living near the Irish Sea were more than four times at risk.

These cases, he claimed, could possibly be linked to radioactive emissions from the BNFL plant at Sellafield.

Health Secretary Jane Hutt calls for research claims withdrawal

But, insisted the health secretary, there was "no evidence" to support this and has called on Dr Busby to withdraw his research findings at that the "earliest possible opportunity".

The latest report from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) found that Dr Busby's conclusions were wrong due to "the use of incorrect cancer registry data".

In one instance, COMARE found the original report said there had been 46 cases of childhood leukaemia in Gwynedd, north Wales, when in fact it could only fine eight cases.

Data discrepancy

COMARE has now called on Dr Busby and colleagues to release the data they used in order to establish why there has been a discrepancy.

Chief medical officer for Wales, Dr Ruth Hall said: "We certainly can't find an explanation and it would seem that he's gone about it in some quite different way and that he may well have a different interpretation and made a mistake.

"But we can't verify that without having complete access to the material which he's used.

"We'd also like to say that Dr Busby has not yet published his findings in any scientific journal which would be normal practice. We'd normally expect such findings to be properly peer-reviewed and published scientifically."