Is this proof of an al-Qa'ida link to Iraq?

An Islamic militant group based in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq with purported links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida has been reported testing ricin on farm animals.

The Iraqi government was also known to be working on the deadly germ warfare agent in the Nineties, although tests were apparently halted after it failed to prove effective as a weapon of mass destruction.

The British Government had been sceptical of US assertions about a possible link between al Qa'ida and Saddam Hussein. But the discovery of ricin in a London house provides a timely bonus for the US and British contention that President Saddam Hussein must be stopped before any of his banned weaponry finds its way into the hands of militant groups linked to Osama bin Laden. German intelligence has warned that one such group, al Tawhid, whose spiritual leader is believed to be the cleric Abu Qatada, now jailed in London, could be preparing an attack on European targets. That group is also reported to have been experimenting with ricin on dogs in Afghanistan.

Bernard Kouchner, a former French health minister and pro-Kurdish campaigner, returned last month from a visit to northern Iraq convinced of the link between President Saddam's regime and the extremist Kurdish militants of Ansar al-Islam in the mountains bordering Iran.

In Tehran, Dr Kouchner met the leader of the Iranian-exiled Iraqi resistance, Ayatollah Bakr al-Hakim, who told him President Saddam had links with al-Qa'ida going back to 1994.

But other experts believe the alleged links provide a convenient conspiracy theory that comforts the US position. There have also been suggestions that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan could be exaggerating the connection to draw in US support. It is also puzzling why – and how – the secular regime of President Saddam would be in touch with Islamic militants in part of Iraq not under his direct control.

Ansar al-Islam militants have been engaged in bitter fighting with other Kurdish factions, and control at least 13 villages in the area. The 700 guerrillas include a hard-core group of 150 fighters who trained in Afghanistan.

As for the Iraqi government, the UN inspectors will be checking whether the Iraqis have resumed their clandestine programme, which produced 10 litres of ricin. During a search of Iraq's main production facility at al-Hakam, before they pulled out in 1998, the UN inspectors discovered four artillery shells that had been used with ricin. But they told the UN Security Council that "these trials produced indifferent results, and apparently, they were not continued".

The inspectors' interviews with Iraqi scientists, if they are private, could prove invaluable in determining the status of Iraq's banned weapons programmes. One scientist was cornered by a UN team as he ran down a staircase to avoid a documents search by biological weapons experts. His bulging briefcase contained information on Iraq's ricin project.