The British government is urging Washington to offer top Iraqi prisoners their freedom in exchange for information about Saddam Hussein and his alleged banned weapons, according to newspaper reports.
The London Timessaid British officials had told Washington that the only way to track down former Iraqi President Saddam and his disputed arsenal was to allow top-ranking Iraqis, many of whom are being held in Baghdad, to plea bargain.
It said that, to the "intense frustration" of the British, the Americans had rejected the idea.
"We have been trying for ages to persuade the Americans but they have come up with all kinds of legal arguments," the paper quoted one unnamed official as saying.
The British government is under increasing pressure to find the weapons which it cited as the justification for going to war with Iraq in March.
Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who quit the cabinet on the eve of the war, said yesterday it was "inconceivable" that the Iraqis could have kept weapons and weapon-making equipment hidden for the two months since the British and Americans occupied Iraq.
"We have now inspected every munitions storage facility in Iraq and have found no chemical or biological weapons," he said.