WASHINGTON, Aug 23: The US intelligence community is ill-prepared to assess Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities and its intentions for developing weapons of mass destruction, a congressional report said on Wednesday.

Noting ‘significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the various areas of concern about Iran’, the House Intelligence Committee staff report questioned whether the United States could even effectively engage in talks with Tehran on ways to defuse tensions.

The Bush administration said it was handling the problem.

“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is already taking steps along the lines the committee has recommended,” said a spokeswoman, reading from a statement.

Iran said on Tuesday that discussions could begin immediately on a package offered in June by the United States and its allies aimed at discouraging Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. Previous such calls for dialogue have been seen by the West as a stalling tactic.

The major powers made the offer after Iran last December said it had resumed efforts to enrich uranium in defiance of international community.

The congressional report said there ‘is a great deal about Iran that we do not know’ and warned that ‘policymakers will need high-quality intelligence to assess Iranian intentions to prepare for any new round of negotiations’.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Washington said was aimed at rooting out weapons of mass destruction, huge gaps in America’s intelligence-gathering capability were exposed. No such weapons were found and U.S. troops are now bogged down in an extended conflict.

The House panel’s report warned of similar inadequacies in the quality of U.S. intelligence on Iran.—Reuters