THE year was 1993 and Iraq had a problem. It desperately needed some parts for one of its power stations but the equipment, manufactured by a company in Britain, was being blocked under United Nations sanctions.

Up sprang Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. He was then foreign minister but was latterly better known as the overly optimistic information chief nicknamed Comical Ali after claiming that American troops were being slaughtered at the gates of Baghdad when they were actually seizing control of the city.

Al-Sahaf had a plan. Like many of his other schemes that came to light last week in documents unearthed in a room next to his former office in Baghdad, it seemed, at best, to suggest a shaky understanding of affairs in the outside world.

He decided to call on Sir Edward Heath, the former British prime minister, for help.

In files in folders marked “Britain, 1993”, al-Sahaf called Heath one of two “effective elements” in tackling the steam turbines issue. The other was Lord Prior, the former Northern Ireland secretary and chairman of GEC from 1984-98.

Heath, related the minister, had a “strong friendship” with Prior, who had a connection, it was claimed, with NEI Parsons, the power-engineering group from Newcastle upon Tyne that had helped to build the al- Mussaib power station 120 miles north of Baghdad.

According to al-Sahaf, Heath had promised the head of the Iraqi interests section in London that he would “co-operate” with Prior in helping to get the spare parts shipped since they were intended for humanitarian and civilian purposes. In the hope of spurring him on, al- Sahaf wrote Heath a letter.

“I am hoping to secure your good offices in order to expedite the reshipment to Iraq of steam turbine/generator parts that belong to unit number three of the al-Mussaib thermal power station,” it said.

A spokesman for Heath said last week that he did not recall the request: “Sir Edward has also contacted Lord Prior to discuss the matter. Lord Prior regards it as highly unlikely he would have acted on the request by getting involved in seeking to obtain parts from NEI Parsons as he was working for a rival company at that time.”

Whatever the case, nothing seemed to dampen al-Sahaf’s enthusiasm for plotting ways of undermining the UN embargo. Files recovered by The Sunday Times from the foreign ministry refer to a welter of eccentric initiatives that raise questions about how he survived in the job until early 2001, when he was demoted to minister of information.

One of his final reports was dated January 30, 2001, when he wrote to Saddam to propose using Loik Le Floch-Prigent, former head of the French state oil company Elf, as an intermediary in negotiations with George W Bush, the newly installed American president.

It did not seem to matter to al-Sahaf that “Mr Loik”, as he called him, was embroiled in a corruption case that would land him in jail.

“Mr Loik”, wrote al-Sahaf, had met Iraq’s ambassador in Paris and offered to use his “friendship” with Bush to help to increase western investment in Iraq’s oilfields.

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