Saddam denies having weapons of mass destruction

President Saddam Hussein denied yesterday that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction or links to al Qaeda, on the eve of a key US address to the UN Security Council laying out its case against Iraq.

In an interview with British Socialist politician Tony Benn in Baghdad, Saddam said the United States and Britain were intent on war with Iraq to control oil in the Middle East.

"There is only one truth, and therefore I tell you as I have said on many occasions before, that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction," he said in a rare interview in Baghdad on Sunday and aired on British television's Channel Four news.

The broadcast came on the eve of a speech by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Security Council at 1530 GMT today, in which he has said he will show that Iraq is concealing banned weapons programmes from UN arms inspectors in defiance of the world community.

He is also expected to accuse Baghdad of possible links with al Qaeda although US sources said this would be only a small part of his presentation.

The European Union said it would join a last gasp Arab peace mission to Baghdad and also stepped up efforts for an emergency EU summit to sort out splits in its Iraq policy.

The leaders of Iraqi neighbours Saudi Arabia - the world's biggest oil producer - and Jordan also met in Riyadh to discuss ways to avert a conflict, with Arab nations fearing a devastating spinoff costing their economies billions of dollars in the event of war.

Oil prices rose, with jittery traders unnerved by the differences between Blair and Chirac. Financial markets reeled ahead of Powell's speech, with gold - traditional safe haven in times of trouble - rising to a 6-1/4-year high, bond prices higher and stocks battered further.

In his interview with former Labour party cabinet minister Benn, Saddam declared: "We have no relationship with al Qaeda" - the network headed by Osama bin Laden blamed for the devastating attacks on the United States in September 2001.

"If we had a relationship with al Qaeda and we believed in that relationship, we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it," Saddam added.

He reiterated Iraq's stance that it has no banned chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes, despite US accusations to the contrary.

He also denied Iraq had breached last November's UN Security Council resolution 1441, which warned of "serious consequence" if Baghdad failed to cooperate with US arms inspectors.

"Every fair-minded person knows that as far as resolution 1441 is concerned, the Iraqis have been fulfilling their obligations under the resolution," he told Benn.

The inspectors have said Iraq has not consistently provided active cooperation, but Saddam said occasional differences did not "mean Iraq is interested in putting obstacles before them which could hinder their efforts to get to the truth".

"The superpowers can create a pretext any day to claim that Iraq is not implementing resolution 1441. They have claimed before that Iraq did not implement the previous resolutions," he said.

Kuwait, which Baghdad invaded in 1990 at the start of the last Gulf war, closed off its northern areas bordering Iraq to unauthorised personnel from February 15.

The UN's chief weapons inspectors, who are due in Baghdad next Saturday and Sunday, are scheduled to report to the Security Council on progress in arms inspections on February 14.

Thousands of US troops backed by aircraft and naval forces are already in the Gulf concentrated on Kuwait, and are being joined by British forces ahead of a possible war.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington last week, said he thought a decision on taking military action against Iraq was less than a month away.

Britain said it would begin loading tanks from Germany onto 20 to 30 ships this week, indicating a possible mid-March start date for a ground war against Iraq.

The Kremlin said Bush telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday to discuss the latest developments, adding that Putin had stressed UN arms inspectors had a key role to play "in defining further steps over Iraq".

Moscow hardened its stance towards Baghdad on January 28 and many analysts say it will not use its veto on the UN Security Council to block US military action formulated in any new Council resolution or even abstain.

The High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that about half of the estimated 600,000 Iraqis who could flee any US-led invasion were expected to head for Iran.

Ruud Lubbers and other UN sources said that despite a UN appeal for more than $37 million for aid operations in Iraq, no funds had been received so far from donors.