US President George W Bush this afternoon accused Iraq of training al-Qaeda in the use of banned chemical and biological weapons.
"Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s," President Bush said in his weekly radio address.
"Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al-Qaeda.
"Iraq has also provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training, and an al-Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases," he said.
The US president leveled the charges as part of his administration's attempt to convince other nations to join a US-led attack on Iraq to disarm the Gulf nation.
The US president also reiterated calls to the UN Security Council to pass a resolution authorising the use of force to disarm Iraq.
AFP