Powell to present Iraq dossier to UN

US Secretary of State Colin Powell was today presenting a dossier of evidence against Iraq to the UN Security Council.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was joining him in New York after rejecting as “futile” calls to give Iraq more time to disarm.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein remained defiant last night insisting there were no weapons of mass destruction to give up.

Writing in The Times, Mr Straw said: “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Saddam has made his choice.

“I have hoped and prayed all along this crisis could be resolved by Iraq’s co-operation with weapons inspectors.

“But it seems clear that Saddam will never voluntarily relinquish his weapons”.

Speaking at a summit with Tony Blair yesterday, French President Jacques Chirac said there was still “much to be done in the way of disarmament by peaceful means”.

Mr Straw said: “Calls to give the inspectors more time are futile as long as Saddam refuses to co-operate. We must not allow calls for more time to become a cop-out.”

But Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon stressed that President Chirac had stopped short of threatening to veto a fresh UN resolution.

Tony Blair faces pressure from his own MPs to secure a second UN resolution authorising force.

Mr Blair hopes the US dossier will help convince France and Germany that military action is needed.

The Security Council members have both spoken out against imminent military action.

But Mr Powell was expected to claim that secret recordings of Iraqi officials prove they have been deceiving UN inspectors.

He admits that his dossier does not contain “smoking gun” evidence that Iraq possesses nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, but he hopes to persuade Security Council members that Iraq is hiding them.

Saddam showed no sign of a change in his attitude in an interview with Labour MP Tony Benn, filmed in Baghdad.

“These weapons do not come in small pills that you can hide in your pocket,” the Iraqi leader said.

“These are weapons of mass destruction and it is easy to work out if Iraq has them or not.”

Saddam said Iraq wanted the UN inspections to succeed to prove it does not have weapons.

“It is in our interests to help them (inspectors) reach the truth,” he said.

“The question is whether the other side wants to reach the truth or whether it wants to find a pretext for aggression.”

The Iraqi leader also repeated that his regime had no links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

“If we had a relationship with al-Qaida and we believed in that relationship, we wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it,” he said.

“Therefore I would like to tell you directly and also through you to anyone who is interested to know that we have no relationship with al-Qaida.”

Saddam said he was using the interview to issue a direct plea to the British people and the world for peace.

“There is only one truth and therefore I tell you as I have said on many occasions before that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever,” he said.

“We challenge anyone who claims that we have to bring forward any evidence and present it to public opinion.”

Saddam added: “Iraq has no interest in war. No Iraqi official or ordinary citizens have expressed a wish to go to war.”