N-bomb equipment 'lost in Iraq'

Nuclear bomb- making equipment could end up in the hands of terrorists because of the chaos in Iraq, a United Nations watchdog has warned.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that high-precision tools and materials had gone missing from the country since the war ended.

The claims are sure to be seized on by anti-war MPs today as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw faces Commons questions on the Iraq Survey Group's failure to find weapons.

Last night backbenchers confronted Tony Blair to demand a proper apology for the Government's misuse of intelligence in the run-up to war. The UN agency's criticism will be embarrassing to Mr Blair as he has said all along that the main reason for war was to prevent possible proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The IAEA said that new satellite images showed that entire buildings in Iraq had been dismantled and neither the Baghdad government nor Washington appeared to have noticed.

The buildings once housed equipment that could help a government or terror group make nuclear bombs,

watchdog said in a report to

Security Council.

Equipment and material helpful in making bombs have

been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and have disappeared without trace, according to IAEA directorgeneral Mohamed el Baradei.

It was "concerned about

widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement"

nuclear equipment, he added. The United States barred

return of UN weapons investigators after launching the

on Iraq in March last year, preventing the IAEA from keeping tabs on hi-tech equipment

materials up to the present

Under anti-proliferation agreementsthe US occupation authorities which administered Iraq until June, then the Iraqi interim government that took power at the end of June, would have to inform the IAEA if they moved or exported any of that material or equipment.

But no such reports have been received since the invasion, officials of the watchdog agency said.

UN diplomats said the satellite images could mean the equipment had been moved to new sites inside Iraq or stolen.

If stolen, it could end up in the hands of a terrorist group. " We simply don't know, although we are trying to get the information," said one UN insider.