Iraq has strenuously denied US claims that it is in "material breach" of UN resolution compelling to disclose the extent of its arsenal of weapons.
Iraq's Ba-ath Party newspaper al-Thawrasaid today that recent inspections of sites mentioned in a British government dossier on Iraqi arms programmes had "exposed the lies and allegations by the Bush administration and its ally Blair".
The editorial in al-Thawrachallenged the US and British governments to substantiate their charges that Iraq is still pursuing its quest for chemical, biological and nuclear arms.
"If they have other information, as they allege, why don't they give it to the inspection teams to verify?" it asked.
"If the United States and Britain acknowledged that Iraq has no banned weapons, it would not only be an international scandal, but all their pretexts (for war) would collapse.
"So the aim of those liars is not to be assured that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, nor the return of the inspectors or rebuilding the ongoing (UN) monitoring system, but to search for a pretext for aggression on Iraq," it said.