Allawi's declaration followed an announcement by the US government Wednesday it had shipped out 1.7 tonnes of enriched uranium and other radioactive materials from Iraq last month that could have been used in a so-called "dirty" bomb or a nuclear weapons programme.

"Iraq has no intention and no will to resume these programs in the future, these materials which are potential weapons of mass murder are not welcome in our country and their production is unacceptable," Allawi said.

"The Iraqi government will no longer spend the riches of its nation on these destructive and illegal weapons, we are now at a time when we are devoted to improving the welfare of our nation and re-join the international markets through direct partnership with all nations."

The removal of the radioactive materials came ahead of the June 28 handover of power from the US-led coalition of occupying powers to Iraq's interim government.

The operation, which took place last month, involved 20 US nuclear experts from the US Energy Department's secret laboratories as well as an undisclosed number of US troops.

Working at Iraq's former al-Tuwaitha nuclear complex, the team packaged the low-enriched uranium and roughly 1,000 other highly radioactive devices, loaded them on a military plane and hauled them to the United States on June

The enriched uranium will be stored temporarily at an undisclosed Department of Energy facility, while the devices will be further examined at a US government laboratory, officials said.

Tuwaitha, southeast of Baghdad, played a key role in an Iraqi drive to illicitly build nuclear weapons prior to the 1991 Gulf War.

It was dismantled in the early 1990s under UN ceasefire resolutions ordering Iraq to abandon its quest for weapons of mass destruction.

But Saddam's refusal to provide full disclosure on weapons of mass destruction to UN arms inspectors resulted in 13 years of trade sanctions and served as the catalyst for the US-led spring 2003 US invasion that toppled his regime.

Although enriched uranium has been found in the country, US arms inspectors have failed to turn up evidence of an active nuclear or chemical or biological weapons programme in the final years of Saddam's reign.

WAR.WIRE