Iraq pours scorn on 'outrageous' US charges

Iraq has dismissed US accusations that it is cheating weapons inspectors and has links with al-Qaeda after the United States …

Iraq has dismissed US accusations that it is cheating weapons inspectors and has links with al-Qaeda after the United States and Britain called for a new UN resolution to authorise war.

Iraqi officials responded angrily to US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell, who on Wednesday presented the UN Security Council with spy satellite photos, tapes of bugged conversations and other material he said was evidence of Iraq hiding banned weapons.

Mr Amer al-Saadi, adviser to President Saddam Hussein, said the allegations were "outrageous and not convincing," designed as "home consumption for the uninformed".

"We will send a detailed letter to the Security Council . . . to rebut Powell's speech point by point," he told a Baghdad news conference.

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Months of diplomatic manoeuvring over Iraq now focuses on whether the Security Council will follow up its resolution 1441, which threatened Iraq with "serious consequences" if it failed to disarm, with an even tougher resolution.

An elite US air assault division has been ordered to the Gulf region, and US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld has left for Europe to argue the case for a war on Iraq.