Iraq's Information Minister dismissed as "cartoon films" satellite images of so-called banned weapons programmes presented by Mr Powell yesterday.
"We can confirm that these are hollow allegations that have nothing new to add to previous CIA reports," Mr Mohammad Saeed al- Sahaf told the official Iraqi News Agency.
He described satellite pictures produced by Mr Powell of suspicious activities outside weapons sites as "nothing different to cartoon films".
Mr Sahaf said the Foreign Minister, Mr Naji Sabri, would send a letter to UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan today, responding to Mr Powell's "lies and allegations".
Before Mr Powell's speech, Iraq's state media said the evidence against Baghdad he planned to unveil would be fabricated, cheap or vague.
"Powell has nothing but fabricated intelligence information," wrote the ruling Baath Party newspaper, al-Thawra.
Babel, newspaper of President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, said Washington was seeking an excuse to launch its "already-decided aggression" on Iraq.
"What Powell is going to present will be cheap satellite pictures and vague recorded conversations," the government newspaper, al-Jumohouriya, said.
In a rare television interview broadcast on Tuesday, President Saddam flatly denied Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Mr Powell then challenged him to "prove it".
Meanwile, Iraqi officials said the UN weapons inspectors visited at least nine more sites in Iraq yesterday. A biological team from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) went to al-Nu'man, a state-run irrigation company south of Baghdad.
Another team combed a food research centre in Baghdad and a third inspected a laser research centre belonging to Baghdad University. A fourth team visited a dairy factory in Abu Ghraib, north of the capital.
A missile team went to the al-Mutasim missile plant 54 miles west of Baghdad and another team visited a missile factory belonging to the al-Karamah facility, which allegedly conducted research on missile guidance and control systems.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited warehouses in the Tuweitha compound, the main site of the Iraqi nuclear programme south of Baghdad before it was removed in an earlier round of inspections.
They also inspected the site of the Osirak reactor bombed by Israel in 1981.
UN arms inspectors said they found an empty chemical warhead at a military depot near Baghdad on Tuesday, the same type as 12 undeclared empty warheads found elsewhere last month.
Chief UN inspector Dr Hans Blix told the Security Council on January 27th that Iraq should have declared the warheads and said the find could be the "tip of an iceberg".
Iraq said it was a simple oversight. - (Reuters)