The United States plans to make public its evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, US Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted as saying today.
"The United States possesses several pieces of information which come from the work of our intelligence that show Iraq maintains prohibited weapons," Mr Powell told Italian newspaper Corriere della Serain an interview.
"Once we have made sure it can be done safely, I think that in the next week or soon after we can make public a good part of this material," he told the newspaper.
Washington has not yet made public the evidence it says it has that show Iraq has banned weapons programmes. Corrierealso quoted Mr Powell as saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be able to use the weapons soon.
"We already have shown that Saddam Hussein is acting in bad faith and that his regime is not cooperating with [UN] inspectors, and that Iraq has no intention of dismantling its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction," he said.