Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has denied allegations that his country possesses weapons of mass destruction.
Saddam was speaking through an interpreter in a rare interview with veteran British Labour politician Mr Tony Benn, broadcast on Channel 4 News this evening.
"There is only one truth, and therefore I tell you as I havesaid on many occasions before, that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction."
The Iraqi leader also denied his regime has any links with al Qaeda. "We have no relationship with al Qaeda. If we had a relationship with al Qaeda and we believed in that relationship, we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it,"The interview was recorded on a visit to Iraq by Mr Benn last weekend.
As pressure grows on Saddam from the US and Britain he added: "Every fair-minded person knows that as far as resolution 1441 is concerned, the Iraqis have been fulfilling their obligations under the resolution."
"The superpowers can create a pretext any day to claim thatIraq is not implementing resolution 1441. They have claimedbefore that Iraq did not implement the previous resolutions," he said.
Saddam said the push to war was being led in the UnitedStates by supporters of "the Zionist entity" (Israel), and that Washington believed "the destruction of Iraq is a pre-requisite to controlling oil."
Saddam concluded that "Iraqis don't wish for war but if war is imposed on them...they will defend themselves."