DAMASCUS, Jan 25: Damascus denied on Sunday charges by the former head of the US-led coalition's search for alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that parts had been moved to Syria in the run-up to the war.

The accusations by David Kay, the recently replaced head of the Iraq Survey Group, in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper were "baseless deception and lies," said Information Minister Ahmad Al Hassan. "The aim is to cover up their failure to find any weapons of mass destruction, the pretext they advanced for going to war," he said.

Mr Kay said in what was billed as an exclusive interview that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme had been transferred to Syria, and its status had yet to be resolved.-AFP