06 February 2005	Sunday	26 Zilhaj 1425

WASHINGTON, Feb 5: US senators have launched a review of intelligence on Iran to try to avoid pitfalls that marked the path to the invasion of Iraq, the Los Angeles Times said.

"We have to be more pre-emptive on this committee to try to look ahead and determine our capabilities so that you don't get stuck with a situation like you did with Iraq," Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was quoted as saying.

In his State of the Union address on Wednesday, President George Bush called Iran "the world's primary state sponsor of terror" and repeated accusations that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has denied those charges and says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating power for civilian use.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in London on Friday that an attack on Iran was not on the agenda "at this point in time".

The aim of the Senate review, Mr Roberts said, is to ensure that any weaknesses in American intelligence on Iran are being disclosed to policymakers, and that US spy agencies have adequate resources to fill gaps in collecting information on the Islamic republic.

Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement cited by the paper: "One of the lessons we learned from Iraq was not to take all information at face value and to ask more questions in the beginning than in the end."

The Bush administration based its case for the invasion of Iraq mainly on the alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

In a harshly critical report in July, the Senate Intelligence Committee said intelligence agencies overstated the Iraqi threat, relied on dubious sources and ignored contrary evidence in the run-up to the invasion.

Mr Roberts said the review would take place largely behind closed doors, and that it was in its early stages, the Times said in the article posted on its Web site on Friday.

It quoted committee aides as saying the review was not a formal investigation and that there were no plans to make its findings public. A CIA official said the agency would help in the review, the paper said. -Reuters