Saddam defiant after warhead discovery

Saddam Hussein issued a defiant threat today – on the anniversary of the Gulf War – that military action against Iraq would fail.

The dictator was speaking after empty chemical warheads were discovered by United Nations weapons inspectors.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair was expected to be briefed on the find at a meeting with chief inspector Hans Blix later today.

The talks were arranged before the discovery was made yesterday.

London and Washington were playing down its significance, signalling it was not the “material breach” of UN resolution 1441 that would trigger war.

But Foreign Office minister Mike O’Brien echoed Mr Blix’s demand for Saddam to begin co-operating with the inspection team.

“As far as Saddam Hussein is concerned, 1441 is not just about him sitting back and waiting for the inspectors to find something,” Mr O’Brien told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“It actually imposes obligations for him to actively declare what he’s got and assist the inspectors in disarming him.”

There was no sign that the Iraqi dictator was ready to do that in his televised speech to mark the 12th anniversary of the Gulf conflict.

“Everyone who tries to climb over its walls ... will fail in his attempt,” Saddam said of his capital city Baghdad.

The dictator called on the Iraqi people to “let your guns wait in ambush for him” – a clear reference to the United States.

And he warned: “The people of Baghdad have resolved to compel the Mongols of this age to commit suicide on its walls.”