BAGHDAD: The US soldiers, acting on a tip, seized piles of top secret cryptography equipment and Iraqi intelligence documents in a raid on Saturday.

The find, which includes references to the country's nuclear programme, is being handed over to senior intelligence analysts to look for information on Iraq's banned weapons programmes.

"It's potentially significant," said Capt Ryan McWilliams, an intelligence officer with the army's 1st Armoured Division, who examined the documents. He said that there were "potentially some pretty strong documents regarding the intelligence service."

The intelligence haul came on the sixth day of a nation-wide sweep to seize weapons and insurgents dubbed Operation Desert Scorpion.

McWilliams said informants told him Iraqi intelligence officials stashed the goods there in the last days of Saddam Hussein's regime. He added that the stash would be handed over to intelligence analysts at the division's headquarters at Baghdad International Airport to see if they relate to banned weapons programmes.

One document, dated February 7, 1998, appeared to be a manifest for secure communications equipment. The memo, sent from the National Security Council of Iraq was addressed to the Iraqi Nuclear Organisation, with a carbon to the Mukhabarat, the secret intelligence service.

Also, The Washington Post and New York Times reported that Saddam's top aide, captured on Monday, has told interrogators that the deposed leader and his two sons survived the war and were hiding north of Baghdad. The claim, attributed to Abid Hamad Mahmud, could not be verified, a US defence official said.