Powell cites report that Iraq plans chemical attack

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday the United States had heard reports that the Iraqi authorities planned to use chemical weapons against Iraqis in the south and blame it on the United States.

"There are such reports. I have no doubt that he (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) would do such a thing if he thought it served his interest," Powell told the Fox News network in an interview.

"We are concerned about it. We will follow this matter carefully. We will also get everything we can together - all the intelligence that we can," he added.

A senior State Department official who asked not to be named said the report was that Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and the commander in the south, had authority to use chemical weapons against the local Shi'a Muslim population. He declined to say where the information came from.

Majid, known in the West as Chemical Ali, has been blamed for the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988, which killed about 5,000 people.

The United States and Britain invaded Iraq last week to overthrow Saddam Hussein and get rid of any weapons of mass destruction Iraq might have.

The State Department official repeated a report, first circulated at the Pentagon early this month, that the Iraqis were trying to acquire uniforms similar to those worn by US and British forces "in order to carry out massacres, which would then be blamed on coalition forces". He gave no details of the source or credibility of the alleged report.