US defense secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, who cited Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological arms as justification for war, said today it was possible Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction when US-led forces invaded, but not likely.
Mr Rumsfeld held out the possibility that a US-led team still searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq eventually might find them despite last month's conclusion by the group's departing leader, Mr David Kay, that no stockpiles of such arms existed in Iraq when it was invaded last March.
Testifying before committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, Mr Rumsfeld also defended the war despite the doubts over the presence of these arms.
"I'm convinced that the president of the United States did the right thing in Iraq. Let there be no doubt," Mr Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The world is a safer place today and the Iraqi people far better off for that action."
The existence of chemical and biological weapons and a reconstituted nuclear arms program was cited by President George W. Bush, Mr Rumsfeld and other US officials as a major reason for invading Iraq and overthrowing President Saddam Hussein.
Publicly addressing Mr Kay's comments for the first time, Mr Rumsfeld acknowledged that Iraq may not have possessed weapons at the start of the war.
"I suppose that's possible, but not likely," Mr Rumsfeld testified.