NEW YORK, June 22: The CIA had "less than a handful" of sources in Iraq before the invasion and could not get access to suspected weapons programmes, the departing head of the agency's spy service said on Monday.

"As some critics have claimed, during the pre-war period, we did not have many Iraq sources. We certainly did not have enough," James Pavitt, CIA's deputy director for operations, said in a speech to the Foreign Policy Association.

"Until we put people on the ground in northern Iraq, we had less than a handful," said Mr Pavitt, who has announced plans to retire in August. He said the CIA was unable to gain access to the "heart of Saddam's weapons programmes". But in the months before the invasion the agency got closer to the inner political and military circles and collected intelligence the US military found vital when it entered Iraq, he said.

The CIA's presence in Iraq is now the largest anywhere since the Vietnam war, Mr Pavitt said. The Bush administration and intelligence agencies have been criticized for allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The United States had faced difficulties recruiting Iraqi spies before the invasion because potential sources were fearful of retribution from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and wary of the US commitment to overthrow him, Mr Pavitt said. -Reuters