WASHINGTON, Dec 9: A top Al Qaeda suspect whose testimony was used in part to justify the invasion of Iraq, has said his statements linking Baghdad to Al Qaeda were false and made under coercion in Egypt, The New York Times said on Friday quoting current and former US officials.

While it was known that Ibn al Shaykh al Libi recanted his statements in March last year, this is the first time US officials admitted he had lied about the Iraq-Al Qaeda links to obtain better treatment from his captors, the daily said.

It is also the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have been in part the result of the US policy of ‘rendition’, by which suspects are sent abroad for interrogation to skirt strict US rules against prisoner abuse, the daily added.

Libyan by birth, Shaykh Libi was captured in Pakistan in late 2001, becoming the highest ranking Al Qaeda leader in US custody.

He was held initially in Afghanistan but transferred to Egypt in Jan 2002, said the US officials.

Libi made some statements about Iraq and Al Qaeda in US custody, but it was only after he was sent to Egypt that he made the most specific assertions that were later used by the US government to justify the invasion of Iraq, the sources said.

Shaykh Libi later said he had made false statements to escape harsh treatment in Egypt.

Returned to US custody in Feb 2003, Libi withdrew his claims about Iraq and Al Qaeda in January last year.

The New York Times disclosure is sure to prompt more criticism of the administration of President George Bush, already under fire for misleading the public about Iraq’s nuclear arsenal, which has never been found.

Egypt’s Ambassador in the United States, Nibil Fahmy, told the newspaper in a telephone interview that he knew nothing of Libi’s case, but that the Egyptian government was ‘not in the business of torturing anyone’.

After March 2002, the US Central Intelligence Agency began maintaining custody of Al Qaeda leaders it captured, rather than relinquishing them to foreign authorities. —AFP