US claims Iraq does in fact have weapons

The United States is insisting that Iraq does indeed possess weapons of mass destruction despite the UN inspectors' failure thus far to find evidence of them.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer reacted to the latest comments by chief UN inspector Hans Blix that arms experts have found no "smoking gun" proving Iraq has banned weapons.

"Well, the problem with guns that are hidden is you can't see their smoke. And so, we will still wait to see what the inspectors find in Iraq and what events in Iraq lead to," Fleischer told reporters.

He noted that Blix' report did cite a number of concerns and problems in what Iraq has been doing. "We know for a fact that there are weapons there," he said.

REUTERS