US Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld warned today that the Iraqi threat grows "every day that goes by," citing its maturing programs to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Rumsfeld's comments came amid fresh reports that the US administration is preparing to formally adopt pre-emptive military strikes as an option against states like Iraq that are developing weapons of mass destruction and have links to terrorist groups.
Mr Rumsfeld would not answer directly when asked at a Pentagon news conference whether such a "first strike" option would be enshrined as doctrine in a new US national security strategy being prepared by the White House.
But he suggested that the administration already has set such a precedent in Afghanistan in launching the military campaign to root out the al-Qaeda terrorist network and topple the Taliban regime that supported it.
Meanwhile US plans to topple President Saddam Hussein through covert actions were "nothing new", Iraqi Foreign Minister Mr Naji Sabri said today.
"It's nothing new," Mr Sabri told journalists after a Washington Postreport yesterday said that US President George W. Bush had directed the CIA to undertake a comprehensive, covert program to overthrow President Hussein this year, including authority to use lethal force.
"The United States has plotted against Iraq for more than 30 years and plots against any country in the world which demonstrates independence," Mr Sabri said.
"From time to time, the United States presents its policy with a misleading appearance to dupe (American) public opinion," the minister said.
The presidential order, an expansion of a previous presidential finding designed to oust President Hussein, directs the CIA to use all available tools, including the possible use of US Special Forces teams in the operation and authorisation to kill the Iraqi president if they were acting in self-defence.
It also provided for expanded efforts to collect intelligence within the Iraqi government, military, security service, tapping into perceived anti-Saddam sentiment, according to the Washington Post. The US administration has allocated tens of millions of dollars to the covert programme, the paper said.
Sources said the CIA initiative was part of a broader Bush administration plan to remove President Hussein that ranges from economic pressure to diplomacy and what officials believe will eventually include military action on a large scale.
AFP