Duelfer spoke as his Iraq Survey Group issued a report saying Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction at the time of the US-led invasion in March

The inspector told the Senate Armed Services Committee that some small finds had been made of chemical and nerve agents dating from before 1991. Some tips were also to be followed up.

"Despite these reports and finds, I still do not expect that militarily significant WMD stocks are cached in Iraq," Duelfer said.

While Saddam hoped to develop a long range missile system, his weapons development program was in such disrepair that little work was ever done on warheads, Duelfer said.

After weapons inspections began 1991, Saddam sidelined chemical and biological weapons programs with an eye toward future development, Duelfer said.

"As in the other WMD areas, Saddam sought to sustain the requisite knowledge base to restart the program eventually and, to the extent it did not threaten the Iraqi effort to get out from sanctions, to sustain the inherent capability to produce such weapons as circumstances permitted in the future," he told the panel.

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