WASHINGTON, April 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States ignored the work of UN inspectors, who had extraordinary access during their three months in Iraq between November 2002 and March 2003, before the Iraq war, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

    Months before US troops attacked Iraq in March 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) challenged every piece of evidence the Bush administration offered to support claims of anuclear program in the country, the report said, quoting an investigation report commissioned by President George W. Bush and released Thursday.

    By the time Bush ordered US troops to disarm Saddam Hussein of the deadly weapons he was allegedly trying to build, every piece of fresh evidence had been tested -- and disproved -- by UN inspectors.

    In January 2003, IAEA inspectors discovered that documents showing Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger were forged, but the CIA chose to stick to the claim for another six months, the Post report said.

    The IAEA assessment, which turned out to be accurate, was firstshared with US intelligence in July 2001, according to the authorsof the presidential commission report.

    The UN Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission, headed by Hans Blix to investigate biological, chemical and missile programs in Iraq, also determined before the war that CIA claims about a fleet of pilotless Iraqi planes were incorrect. Theunmanned aerial vehicles did not have the capability to deliver chemical or biological weapons and were probably designed for reconnaissance missions, the Post reported said.

    The Bush administration, which has maintained a hostile relationship with the IAEA, has prevented the agency from returning to Iraq since the invasion in March 2003. Enditem