The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley, Va.

In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas.

Four months after Charles Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear-weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al-Qaida affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States.

Bush has expressed disappointment that no weapons or weapons programs were found, but the White House has been reluctant to call off the hunt, holding out the possibility that weapons were moved out of Iraq before the war or are well-hidden somewhere inside the country. But the intelligence official said that possibility is very small.

In Iraq yesterday, at least 18 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed in a fresh round of attacks as interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged that parts of the country were too lawless to take part in the upcoming national election.

Preparations for the landmark vote have deteriorated in several areas — particularly the western province of Anbar and the area around Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city — as some election officials have resigned under threat.

"Certainly, there will be some pockets that will not be able to participate," Allawi said, "but we think that it will not be widespread."

Allawi's admission, the first of its kind by him, echoed statements made earlier by U.S. military leaders.

Jordan's ambassador to Washington, Karim Kawar, warned yesterday that more than 40 percent of Iraqis would be unable to participate in the vote. "This raises questions about the authenticity of the elections," he said.

The election will be held under the system of proportionate representation, and there will be no electoral boundaries. Organizers have said those unable to cast ballots in troubled areas would be allowed to vote elsewhere.

Allawi discussed preparations for the election by telephone yesterday with Bush, and both leaders emphasized the importance of going ahead with the vote as planned, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Iraq's long-oppressed majority Shiites have embraced the Jan. 30 election, which is expected to formalize their new status as the most dominant group in racially and religiously diverse Iraq. In contrast, the insurgency is led by members of the Sunni Arab minority. Some Sunni leaders say it is far too dangerous to hold the election this month, while influential clerics from the community are calling for a boycott.

Yesterday, Allawi said the government was reaching out to tribal and religious leaders in some of Iraq's volatile areas to try to get them to participate in the vote.

Allawi also said the Iraqi government would spend $2.2 billion to bolster its security forces, expanding the army from 100,000 to 150,000 troops by the end of this year and upgrading its weaponry.

There have been questions about the combat readiness and commitment of postwar Iraq's army and security forces. They have been easy targets for insurgents who have killed hundreds of them in suicide bombings, ambushes and roadside bombs.

The condition of the Iraqi forces has meant that U.S. troops in Iraq have had to shoulder almost the entire responsibility for fighting the insurgency, forcing Washington to shelve any immediate plans for a reduction in the number of its troops deployed in Iraq, currently about 150,000.

U.S. and Iraqi officials expect a barrage of attacks in the next 18 days as insurgents attempt to disrupt the election.

Within the past week, gunmen assassinated Baghdad's governor and deputy police chief. Twice in the past five days, insurgents used roadside bombs to destroy heavily armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles carrying U.S. troops, demonstrating increased fire power and coordination. Three members of Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party were shot to death in and around Baghdad in the past 48 hours.

Attacks this month killed more than 100 Iraqis, mostly Iraqi police and security forces, who are seen by the insurgents as collaborators with U.S. occupiers.

Yesterday brought multiple attacks in Iraq's Sunni heartland, where the insurgency has been the fiercest.

Six Iraqi policemen died when a suicide car bomb detonated at the checkpoint near their station in Tikrit. Four more were wounded in the attack, U.S. authorities said. Al-Qaida in Iraq, the group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

A U.S. soldier was killed in action in Anbar province, the military said.

Insurgents also struck twice in Samarra, a perennial hot spot 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing five Iraqi troops and a civilian, police said.

In one attack, gunmen closed off an intersection near the Razzaq mosque, witnesses said. When a U.S. military convoy approached, a car bomb exploded, killing an Iraqi soldier and a passer-by. A U.S. soldier also was injured in the blast, the military said.

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush in Mosul yesterday, the military said. An Iraqi interpreter working for the United States was shot dead in a separate attack outside the city.

In Yussufiya, a town 10 miles southwest of Baghdad, at least three Iraqis died when a roadside bomb — apparently meant for another U.S. military convoy — exploded as their minibus passed by.

Compiled from The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and Reuters.