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A POWERFUL new virus has been uncovered which has been sabotaging government systems for at least five years in the Middle East.

The "Flame" program is claimed to be at least 20 times more powerful than any previously known cyberwarfare programs.

That includes the infamous Stuxnet which attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010, causing centrifuges in its new uranium enrichment facility at Bushehr to fail just weeks before it was due to start up.

Stuxnet and its successor, Duqu, have been fingered as viruses so powerful they could only have been created by a state.

Flame was discovered by security company Kaspersky, which claims it has been mining Middle East government systems since at least 2010.