Iraq said today it could resist any US military attack in the "war on terrorism."
"We are confident of our capability of resisting any kind of aggression," Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told reporters after opening an international poetry festival in Baghdad.
"The United States has always committed aggression against many countries without justification. If they want to attack Iraq again that will be their own decision."
There has been widespread speculation about whether the US success in Afghanistan would embolden it to move against Iraq.
President George Bush has warned President Saddam Hussein he would learn the consequences if he did not readmit international weapons inspectors to Iraq.
Iraq has denied any link to the Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, regarded by Washington as the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.