US: A secret CIA assessment is yet to find any conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, according to a US magazine.
The New Yorker story by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said the analysis was based on intelligence collected by satellites, and on other evidence such as tests on water and smoke plumes for radioactivity.
Iran has strongly denied the charge from America and Europe that it is pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme parallel to its civilian energy operations. According to the magazine a senior intelligence official said the White House had been hostile to the CIA report and dismissive of it.
The assessment was said to have warned that it would be a mistake to conclude that not finding evidence of a weapons programme merely meant that the Iranians had hidden it well.
Hersh claims in the article that before the recent congressional elections, US vice-president Dick Cheney said that even a Democratic victory would not stop the Bush administration from pursuing a military option on Iran.
The White House rubbished the story as "error-filled".
"Seymour Hersh is unfortunately continuing his series of inaccuracy-riddled articles about the Bush administration with another error-filled piece about the administration's policy toward Iran," it said in a statement to CNN.