Iraq has expressed an interest in reviving its nuclear technology, bombed into oblivion by Israel in 1981 and the US ten years later. An Iraqi minister says Baghdad has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna, to seek its approval to relaunch a peaceful nuclear programme.

Even though Iraq is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, its Government says it is unable to secure the country’s electricity needs. Iraq’s first French-made reactor at Osirak was damaged by an Iranian raid in 1980 and destroyed by Israel a year later. Israel feared Saddam Hussein’s regime was trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

US aircraft demolished further nuclear facilities during the first Gulf War in 1991, and concerns over Saddam’s nuclear ambitions were one of the triggers for the second Gulf War and the US-led invasion. No weapons of mass destruction were found, as it became clear that Saddam had been bluffing about his nuclear capability.

Iraq’s new masters insist they have no intention of trying to develop nuclear bombs. “We are co-operating with the IAEA and expanding and defining areas of research where we can implement nuclear technology for peaceful means,” the Science and Technology Minister, Raid Fahmi, told the Guardian.

That is unlikely to reassure Iraq’s neighbours, however, given the chaotic conditions that reign in the country.

The insurgency is by no means subdued, with a group linked to Iraqi al-Qaeda claiming responsibility for the latest bombings, which killed more than 155 people on Sunday. The Sunni extremist group said on a website that its “martyrs . . . targeted the dens of infidelity”.

Television stations broadcast surveillance footage showing two lorries entering the restricted centre of the city then exploding in front of ministry buildings. Large goods vehicles are barred from the area, suggesting that the attack was made possible by a security breach. A similar attack in August led to pledges that security in the area would be increased.

At least 24 children died in Sunday’s bombings, killed on a bus leaving a daycare centre.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, said that insurgents wanted to tarnish rebuilding efforts: “While we are building, they are destroying,” he said. The attack was the deadliest in Iraq for two years.

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