Saddam Hussein warns of U.S. demise

Saddam Hussein said Iraq had learnt from the Gulf War

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. will lose its superpower status because of its use of force rather than dialogue to settle disputes, Saddam Hussein has warned.

The Iraqi president made the warning in a 30-minute televised address to the nation to mark the 11th anniversary of the start of the Gulf War on Thursday.

Iraq's seven-month occupation of neighbouring Kuwait ended with the U.S.-led coalition force's Desert Storm campaign.

Hussein added that Iraq had survived the Gulf War and had gained strength from it, increasing its chances of repulsing any future attack from the U.S.

The United States' failure to use dialogue to settle disputes would lead to its collapse as the sole superpower "in the near future," Hussein said. "The events of September 11 and the American reaction to them came to reveal extensively how the United States is going headlong in antagonising the world.

"The ascent to the summit is not achieved by brutal force. But it needs a strength of mind and a sensitive human conscience."

He added that Iraq "will not be taken by surprise" and is ready to confront any possible U.S. attack on Iraq.

Iraq had survived the Gulf War and would be able to survive other military action, he said. "After the course of the aggression 11 years ago, backed up by a continuous aggression till this day, our people will not be taken by surprise," Hussein said.

He added Iraqis "now have more confidence in themselves and more conviction in their march than they had in the year 1991.

"Will the performance of one who has sat an examination and passed it be higher and better, or lower and lesser?" Hussein asked.

But he prayed that God would spare Iraq military confrontation with the United States.

Friction has existed between Iraq and the U.S. since the end of the Gulf War over the right of United Nations arms inspectors being allowed into the country as well as reports that an Iraqi agent met with one of the alleged September 11 hijackers before the attack on New York and the Pentagon.

Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions since its invasion of Kuwait. They can only be lifted if U.N. arms inspectors can verify that Iraq dismantled its arsenal of mass-destruction weapons and the capability to manufacture them.

Washington has been the most ardent supporter of keeping sanctions.