Scotland Yard confirmed "a number of firearms" had been recovered from the embassy in an upmarket area of southwest London but declined to say when.

Dr Salah Al Shaikhly told BBC radio the arms haul, which dates to Saddam Hussein's period in power, included four machine guns, several Uzis and 10 handguns with silencers and had been found in one of the 20-odd safes at the embassy.

"It was amazing, you really despair when you know this kind of arsenal was kept at the Iraqi embassy," Al Shaikhly said.

"There were also other things which looked like electric cattle prods," he added.

Aside from boxes of live and spent ammunition, there were also telescopic cameras and bugging devices.

"I believe they must have been bugging their own people inside the embassy ... Such was the regime, it didn't trust anybody. Everybody was spying on everybody else," the ambassador said.

The Knightsbridge building was abandoned by Iraqi diplomats in early 2003 in the run up to war in Iraq. Although the imposing structure was burgled several times while it was left empty, thieves were unable to break into the safes.

The discovery of the weapons is likely to renew debate in Britain about guns and diplomatic missions. Under international law, an embassy is regarded as sovereign territory.

In 1984, police officer Yvonne Fletcher was killed by shots that came from the Libyan embassy in London during demonstrations against the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The gunman was smuggled out with other embassy staff under diplomatic immunity although Libya accepted responsibility in 1999 for the shooting and agreed to compensate her family.