New York ? CBS News has shelved a “60 Minutes” report on the rationale for war in Iraq because it would be “inappropriate” to air it so close to the presidential election, the network said on Saturday.

The report on weapons of mass destruction had been set to air on Sept. 8 but was put off in favor of a story on President Bush’s National Guard service. The National Guard story was discredited because it relied on documents impugning Bush’s service that were apparently fake.

CBS News spokeswoman Kelli Edwards would not elaborate on why the timing of the Iraq report was considered inappropriate.

The report, with Ed Bradley slated as the correspondent, has long been in the works. Originally scheduled for June, it was first put off because of new developments, Edwards said.

The CBS statement followed a report in the online edition of Newsweek that described the frustration of CBS News reporters and producers who said the network had concluded that it could not legitimately criticize the White House because of the lingering questions about the National Guard report.

According to the Newsweek report, the “60 Minutes” segment was to have detailed how the administration relied on false documents when it said Iraq had tried to buy a lightly processed form of uranium, known as yellowcake, from Niger. The administration later acknowledged that the information was incorrect and that the documents most likely were fake.

The Newsweek article said the segment was to have included the first on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who was given the fake documents and who provided them to a United States Embassy for verification. The documents were sent to Washington, where some officials embraced them as firm evidence that Iraq was aggressively trying to make nuclear weapons.

The lead producer on the Niger segment, David Gelber, declined to comment.

CBS said no other reports on the presidential election had been affected.

The network last week appointed former U.S. Atty. General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief executive Louis Boccardi to investigate what went wrong with the “60 Minutes” National Guard report and recommend changes.

The controversy has put CBS News officials squarely on the fire line, particularly anchor Dan Rather, who narrated the National Guard report.

Meanwhile, the network announced that Rather would anchor the network’s coverage of all three presidential debates, starting Thursday.