SADDAM HUSSEIN has been trying to acquire a fleet of 300 drones equipped with spraying devices capable of delivering chemical and biological weapons, it was revealed last week.

Iraqi documents seen by The Sunday Times show orders for kits to make the pilotless planes and for gyroscopes and guidance systems enabling them to be flown at targets from a distance. The documents also contain requests for small spraying devices normally used in agriculture that would be specially adapted for use in the air.

Military experts said the drones could pose a serious threat to British troops fighting a war in Iraq. Baghdad admitted that in 1988 it considered using drones to spray biological weapons, but rejected the idea because the craft it had were too small.

According to the documents, the order for the aircraft was made on behalf of the Ibn Firnas industrial centre in northern Baghdad, which is involved in the development and production of drones.

The material, which has been passed to the United Nations inspectors, also revealed Iraq had been trying to develop a rocket capable of travelling 750 miles — eight times the range permitted by the UN.

Details of the orders emerged as the United Nations declassified a report on Iraq’s prohibited weapons programme. Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, said there was “credible information” that Iraq never destroyed 21,000 litres of biological warfare agents, including 10,000 litres of anthrax, stored during the 1990 Gulf war. There was also “credible information” that Iraq had 7,000 litres more biological warfare agents in bombs and warheads than it had declared.

Blix mentioned that inspectors had recently discovered an undeclared Iraqi drone with a wingspan of 25ft, which he said had been test-piloted by Iraq and could carry anthrax or other biological weapons to neighbouring countries.

To the fury of British and American officials the disclosure was buried deep in his 173-page report and not mentioned in an oral presentation to foreign ministers. The plane is being studied by inspectors to determine whether it can exceed the authorised range of 92 miles.

Blix’s report noted “a surge of activity” in missile technology and accused Iraq of failing to provide information on where it obtained parts and technology.

It also said mobile, truck-mounted biological weapons units were “inherently difficult to verify” and said Iraq’s “active assistance” was required to conduct road and rail searches. Although no underground chemical or biologial weapons units were found, inspectors may have missed a “hidden entrance”, he said.

The inspectors could also not rule out continued research into biological weapons-related genetic engineering, including smallpox and similar diseases.

The document showing Iraqi’s intended weapons purchases are filled with technical data and specifications. They show efforts by Baghdad to smuggle a wide range of prohibited items into the country for military purposes through Jordan and Syria, using a network of Iraqi middlemen abroad and private companies in Baghdad.

The documents were provided by an Iraqi engineer, who said he was approached by Baghdad to help arrange the purchase of the drones and associated equipment at the beginning of 1999, a few months after Iraq forced all UN weapons inspectors to leave. “When I combined this inquiry with the others and analysed what could happen if smaller sprayers were attached to the planes I realised Saddam was trying to build a delivery system for weapons of mass destruction,” the engineer said.

He said the request from Baghdad had ceased after the inspectors returned last November.

• A Texas-based company headed by Dick Cheney before he became American vice- president is poised to become one of the biggest beneficiaries of war in Iraq after winning billions of dollars in government contracts. Halliburton, a giant energy services company, will be employed by the Pentagon overseeing efforts to control fires at oil wells, should Saddam set them alight.

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