An Iraqi Foreign Ministry official, leaving a meeting at the State Department, characterized the charge as "absolutely baseless."

He said of the charges of gas use, "This is absolutely baseless, and this has not taken place at all."

Dr. Ulrich said claims that some of the documents were being suppressed because they might be embarrassing to Christians or Jews were "absolutely baseless."

Saadun Hamadi, Iraq's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said the American charges were "absolutely baseless."

Sarah Craven, the chief of the agency's Washington office, said the administration's contention that the agency indirectly supported China's coercive policies was "false and absolutely baseless."

"It's an absolutely baseless charge," Mr. Cantor said.

It is absolutely baseless to assume that they were ever converted to Islam by any saint.

But Yash Raj Films however denied the reports by saying "This is absolutely baseless.

"The story is absolutely baseless," he said.

"It is not taking place at all, and whatever the Indian side is saying is absolutely baseless," he said.