Carne Ross says Saddam's Iraq never posed threat, we knew regime change would cause chaos.

Previously secret written evidence submitted to an inquiry on British intelligence failures in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq was made public on Thursday, with a former diplomat alleging that "at no time" did the government assess that Iraq posed a threat to Britain.

According to the statement originally submitted by Carne Ross to Lord Robin Butler's 2004 inquiry into the intelligence relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Ross said that during his posting to the United Nations, "at no time did HMG assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."

Ross was First Secretary in the British mission to the UN from December 1997 to June 2002. He said that the preparation of the infamous dossier on Iraq's supposed WMD progremme began before he left.

The evidence was made public on House of Commons's Foreign Affairs Committee website on Thursday.

In it, Ross, who resigned from the Foreign Office in 2004 in protest over the war, states that "it was the commonly-held view among the officials dealing with Iraq that any threat had been effectively contained.

"I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed).

"At the same time, we would frequently argue, when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."

Neither Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office, nor the Foreign Office, commented on the evidence.

Ross went on to say that with the exception of about a dozen Scud missiles which were not accounted for, "there was no intelligence evidence of significant holdings of CW (chemical weapons), BW (biological weapons) or nuclear material" within Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

He continued: "There was moreover no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbours or the UK or US."

He added that, aside from Israel, none of Iraq's neighbours voiced concern that they would be attacked by it.

The former diplomat said that "inertia" within the Foreign Office and the "inattention of key ministers" contributed to Britain never making "any coordinated and sustained attempt to address sanctions busting".

Ross had been threatened that he could be prosecuted under British legislation that requires government employees to keep secret certain official information, particularly matters of national security.

Despite the risk of breaking the law, Ross told the committee in November that he would be "happy to share" the evidence he gave to the Butler inquiry as it had been weighing on his conscience.

He has since founded Independent Diplomat, a non-profit diplomatic advisory service.