JERUSALEM Ñ Available evidence points to Iraq as the sponsor of anthrax attacks in the United States.

A new Israeli report authored by Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a consultant to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said an examination of the anthrax and other evidence indicates Iraqi involvement in the attacks. The report said Saddam's alleged use of anthrax might have served as a warning against any U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

"It is premature to conclude at this point that Iraq stands behind the anthrax attacks in the United States," the report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs said. "But the evidence from the UN weapons inspections of the 1990s makes Iraq a prime suspect."

Israeli security sources said the latest report echoes previous assessments supplied to the Cabinet that Iraq has joined Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden in terrorist attacks against the United States.

Later, Israeli intelligence officials said they don't have evidence of Iraqi involvement in either the anthrax attacks or the Islamic suicide strikes on New York and Washington.

The report quoted former UN chief inspector Richard Butler as saying that Iraqi nonconventional weapons were developed for use against Israel.

The report said Iraq has developed such biological weapons agents as anthrax, aflatoxin, clostridium botulinum toxin, clostridium perfringens spores, ricin, and wheat smut. Aflatoxin causes liver cancer and wheat smut is used to destroy crops.

In its final report to the UN Security Council, weapons inspectors said Iraq has not accounted for 520 kilograms of yeast extract, used specifically for anthrax and much of it was weaponized in seven warheads for the long-range Al Hussein missile. The missile has a range of 640 kilometers and can reach Israel from western Iraq.

Iraq also produced 200 biological air bombs. On Sunday, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein convened his two sons Ñ Uday and Kusay Ñ in a meeting. No details were disclosed.

The Israeli report said Iraq's planned storage capacity for all of its biological agents reached 80,000 to 100,000 liters. Bentonite was used in the Iraqi program to keep the anthrax particles small.

"Iraq could have supplied weapons-grade anthrax powder to international terrorist groups," the Israeli report said. "Iraq has an interest in employing international biological terrorism. Iraq presently has no means of deterring a massive American-led attack on Baghdad. Using international terrorist cells planted in the U.S., Iraq could be sending a message that it possesses the ability to retaliate against a decapitation strike against the Iraqi leadership."

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