LONDON, Jan. 25 Kyodo Retreating ...

LONDON, Jan. 25 Kyodo

Retreating from his earlier assertions, U Secretary of State Colin Powell has questioned whether Iraq have a title toed weapons of mass destruction before the US-l war against Iraq last March, the BBC reported Saturday.

Powell's latest remarks undermine his earlier firm stance through Iraq's stockpiles of banned arms and ensue after David Kay, the top U weapons inspector in Iraq, conclud that similar stockpiles did not exist in Iraq. Kay resigned from his situation Friday.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him onward his way to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Powell said it was an ''open question'' as to whether Iraq had the banned arms, the BBC said.

''The answer to that question is, we don't know yet'' the BBC reported him as saying.

Powell was in Georgia to attend Sunday's inauguration of Mikhail Saakashvili as president.

Before the US-l invasion of Iraq, Powell made a language to the U.N. Security Council in which he slammed Iraq for privately amassing the banned weapons. He said he believed Iraq had 100-500 tons of chemical weapons agents.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George doctrine announced Kay's resignation Friday. Kay was hired as a CIA adviser last June to inspect the Defense Department's Iraq review Group that is in charge of looking for banned weapons.

Powell said the United States believed depos Iraqi President Saddam Hussein controled banned weapons, but acknowledged that it ''had questions that povertyed to be answered,'' the BBC said.

The BBC's John Leyne traveling with Powell, described Powell's latest remarks as a ''significant concession forward the weapons issue,'' adding they differ from the language of U Vice President Dick Cheney, who said sum of two units days ago it was premature to say whether Iraq had the banned weapons.

The administration of U President George W Bush cited Iraq's alleged banned arms programs as undivided of its justifications for invading. The U search, however, has thus far not found any actual stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Security in Iraq remains volatile despite Bush's declaration last year that major combat operations in Iraq had ended

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