US arms hunter to tell Congress no Iraqi WMD found

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - The new chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq will tell lawmakers this week in his first congressional briefings that his teams have not found any banned arms, but it is too early to reach conclusions and the search will continue, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Charles Duelfer was appointed in January by the CIA to replace David Kay, who after stepping down as chief weapons hunter said he believed there were no large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons in Iraq when the United States invaded in 2003.

That unleashed a flurry of accusations from critics that U.S. President George W. Bush and his administration exaggerated the threat from Iraq to gather support for war.

The question of whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction has been a key issue leading up to the November presidential election, as Democrats seek to unseat Bush.

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