Council on Foreign Relations last night
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was forced to backtrack rapidly today after saying in a speech that he knew of no clear link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
That link was one of the main reasons for President George Bush's Iraq invasion and Mr Rumsfeld's confession was seen as a gaffe that could seriously harm the president's re-election chances.
It will certainly be raised tonight in the vice presidential TV debate between Mr Dick Cheney and his Democratic challenger Mr John Edwards.
Donald Rumsfeld
Hardliner Mr Rumsfeld (72) had been asked to describe the connection between the Iraqi leader and the al-Qaeda terror network at an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York last night.
At first he refused to answer but then said: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
Several hours after his appearance, Mr Rumsfeld issued a statement from the Pentagon saying his comment "regrettably was misunderstood" by some.
He commented that he has said since September 2002 that there were ties between Osama bin Laden's terror group and Iraq.
"This assessment was based upon points provided to me by then-CIA director George Tenet to describe the CIA's understanding of the al-Qaeda relationship," he said.
This included "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad," he said.
In his New York remarks, Mr Rumsfeld said he had seen intelligence on the Saddam-al-Qaeda question "migrate in amazing ways" in the past year, adding that there were "many differences of opinion in the intelligence community".
He did not elaborate on that but said relationships among terrorists "evolve and change over time".
On whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war, Mr Rumsfeld told the New York audience flatly that intelligence about such weapons before the invasion was faulty - a markedly different statement than what he told a television interviewer just a day earlier.
"It turns out that we have not found weapons of mass destruction," Mr Rumsfeld said last night "Why the intelligence proved wrong I'm not in a position to say, but the world is a lot better off with Saddam Hussein in jail."
In a TV interview on Sunday, Mr Rumsfeld had said he believed Saddam, the deposed Iraqi president, had weapons of mass destruction before the war, and the truth may unfold over months or years.