An internal CIA investigation has revealed that the US intelligence agency lacked hard intelligence when it concluded that Saddam Hussein still had illegal weapons during the build-up to war, the Press Association reported today.

According to the inquiry's preliminary findings, analysts had little up to date information following the expulsion of United Nations inspectors from Iraq in 1998. Instead, they "inferred" from evidence uncovered during the early and mid-1990s that Saddam still had a chemical, biological and nuclear arms programme in early 2003.

But Richard Kerr, a former CIA deputy director who heads the four-person review panel, said intelligence officials were "pretty much on the mark" with their conclusions.

"doubleplusgood, sir. carry on!"