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| Italy denies originating Iraq-Niger uranium claims
ROME, July 13 (AFP) - The Italian government on Sunday denied reports that its intelligence services handed the United States and Britain documents indicating that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger for a nuclear weapons programme. The denial followed a report by Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper that Rome's SISMI intelligence services had given Washington and London documents in late 2001, showing the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had sought uranium from the African state. BizVantage – Serious & personalized business, investment and technology intelligence for a serious advantage. Claims by US President George W. Bush on January 28 that the Baghdad regime had wanted to buy nuclear materials from Africa were used to build a case for going to war with Iraq. "Italy's claimed transmission to other intelligence organizations of documents of Niger or Iraqi origin, conveying evidence about uranium transactions between Niger and Iraq are without any foundation," a statement from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office said. The Italian intelligence services "never provided any documents of such content and origin," the statement added. Berlusconi is a keen ally of US President George W. Bush within a European Union which was split over war in Iraq. The claim about Italy being the origin of the now-discredited intelligence was reportedly set to resurface in an article in Time magazine to be published Monday. CIA director George Tenet on Friday took responsibility for the erroneous allegation made in Bush's State of the Union speech, but that did little to calm the political storm over the statement, which has taken a toll on Bush's popularity. db/rl Italy-Iraq-US
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