US accuses Iraq of developing biological weapons

The US has accused Iraq of building up an arsenal of biological weapons.

The UN has also heard the US describe North Korea's biological weapons programme as "extremely disturbing."

The US undersecretary of state for arms controls stopped short of saying Iraq might supply biological weapons to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

John R Bolton added: "The United States strongly suspects that Iraq has taken advantage of three years of no UN inspections to improve all phases of its offensive biological weapons programme - The existence of Iraq's programme is beyond dispute."

He said the United States believed North Korea had a dedicated, national-level effort to achieve a biological weapons capability and that it has "developed and produced, and may have weaponised" biological agents.

Mr Bolton added the United States was "quite concerned" about Libya, Syria and Sudan, all of which appeared to have biological weapons programmes.

"There are other states I could have named which the United States will be contacting privately concerning our belief that they are pursuing an offensive biological weapons programme," he said.

Mr Bolton said the US knows "that Osama bin Laden considers obtaining weapons of mass destruction to be a sacred duty" and wants to use them against the United States."

"We are concerned that he could have been trying to acquire a rudimentary biological weapons capability, possibly with support from a state."

But he said the United States was "not prepared to comment on whether rogue states may have assisted" bin Laden in the plan.