Iraq was not the biggest worry for British officials trying to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction two years before it was invaded, the inquiry into the conflict has heard. Saddam Hussein's regime was "not top of the list" of countries causing concern to the UK in 2001, the Foreign Office's head of counter-proliferation said. Officials were more alarmed by developments in Libya, Iran and North Korea, the inquiry in central London heard. Tim Dowse, head of counter-proliferation at the Foreign Office from 2001 to 2003, said: "It wasn't top of the list. In terms of my concerns on coming into the job in 2001, I would say we put Libya and Iran ahead of Iraq." Sir William Ehrman, director of international security at the Foreign Office from 2000 to 2002, said: "In terms of nuclear and missiles, I think Iran, North Korea and Libya were probably of greater concern than Iraq." Mr Dowse said that, while Saddam Hussein had supported Palestinian terrorist groups, the assessment was that the Iraqi regime's contacts with groups linked to al Qaida were "quite sporadic". "There had been nothing that looked like a relationship between the Iraqis and al Qaida," he said. "In fact, after 9/11 we concluded that Iraq actually stepped further back. They did not want to be associated with al Qaida. They weren't natural allies. The notorious claim - contained in a dossier published by the Government before the 2003 invasion - that Iraq had WMDs which could be used within 45 minutes did not surprise British officials familiar with Saddam's capabilities, the inquiry heard. They assumed it referred to a weapon to be used on the battlefield, not to an inter-state ballistic missile, but this was not spelled out at the time. Mr Dowse said: "Speaking personally, when I saw the 45 minutes report, I did not give it particular significance because it didn't seem out of line with what we generally assessed to be Iraq's intentions and capabilities with regard to chemical weapons." | 
