Iraq on Sunday accused its neighbours of stealing vast sections of its national archives, including documents dating back centuries, after the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.

Some 60 percent of the archives, amounting to tens of millions of documents, were missing or had been damaged and destroyed as a result of water leaks and a fire at a storage centre in Bab al-Muatham in Baghdad's old quarter.

"Historic documents to do with Iraq's relations with its neighbours have been taken -- they were either bought from smugglers, or recovered them from various political factions," National Archives director Saad Iskander said.

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