Iraq challenged the United States today to provide UN weapons inspectors with information it says it possesses on prohibited Iraqi arms programmes.
"We hope that it will satisfy (the United States) as it is current, accurate as they have asked for and comprehensive, truthful," Amir al-Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam Hussein, told a news conference.
"If they have anything to the contrary, let them come up with it, give it to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), give it to UNMOVIC (UN weapons experts), they are here they could check it. Why play this game?," he told journalists in Baghdad.
Iraq handed over a mammoth dossier on its nuclear, biological and chemical activities to UN weapons inspectors today which it says proves it has no prohibited weapons. But US officials say Washington has substantial evidence, including some not made public, that Iraq has retained and accelerated banned weapons programmes.