WASHINGTON, Sept 27: The White House on Wednesday denied that it was holding back a new intelligence assessment of Iraq until after November 7 elections in which the unpopular war there is expected to be a factor.

Some opposition Democrats have suggested that US President George W. Bush’s aides are stalling the report, keeping it in draft form so that it does not have to be circulated among lawmakers and will not reach the US public.

“They’re just flat wrong,” said Bush spokesman Tony Snow. “There is not a waiting Iraq document that reflects a national intelligence estimate that’s sitting around gathering dust waiting till after the election.”

Mr Snow said that US Director for National Intelligence John Negroponte had undertaken a National Intelligence Estimate — the consensus view of all 16 US spy agencies — on Iraq and that it was still under way.

“They’re just beginning to do their work on it,” said the spokesman, who described the report as being “in the very early stages of composition. And that’s what it is.”

On Tuesday, Bush’s homeland security adviser Frances Townsend likewise denied political motives and said the report would be finished in January 2007.—AFP