LONDON, April 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Britain's intelligence chiefs have admitted for the first time that claims they made about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction were wrong.

    "We are concerned at the amount of intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that has now had to be withdrawn," said the Intelligence and Security Committee Wednesday.

    The committee also referred to the Butler inquiry, which described the MI6 agent behind the claim that Iraq could deploy chemical weapons within 45 minutes as open to "serious doubts" and "seriously flawed."

    The admission was made in an 2004-2005 annual report of the committee presented to the Parliament early this week.

    Late last year the intelligence committee reviewed key judgments on Iraq's capacity of weapons of mass destruction and programs behind the government's now discredited dossier published in September 2002, the committee disclosed.

    The committee blames the lack of communication between ministers and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. It noted that ministerial cabinet committee on the intelligence services has not met since December 2003, and even that meeting was the first in more than seven years.| "Regular meetings would "enable collective discussion by ministers of intelligence priorities and developments," it said.

    At the moment, it added, "ministers discuss intelligence only in the context of crisis or single-issue meetings."

    Three MI6 agents were "withdrawn" after the invasion of Iraq, among them, there is one who claimed that Iraq was still making chemical and biological weapons. Enditem