Fake documents that are at the centre of a controversy surrounding alleged Iraqi attempts to procure uranium from Niger were offered to an Italian newspaper for €15,000 ($18,600, £10,000), a US congressional report on Iraq has revealed.

The documents were handed to the US embassy in Rome in October 2002 by an Italian journalist who asked US officials to verify their authenticity. The US passed them to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, whose officials quickly discovered they were forgeries.