Iraq: U.S. charges 'baseless'

Ramadan: The U.S. is looking for a pretext for an attack

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DAMASCUS, Syria -- Iraq's deputy U.N. Ambassador has dismissed charges that it failed to provide evidence in its declaration to prove that it no longer has weapons of mass destruction as "baseless."

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Friday: "We are consistent in the view that there has been relatively little given in the declaration by way of evidence concerning the programs of weapons of mass destruction."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte said the critical information that is missing from Iraq's voluminous declaration was "not the result of accidents, editing oversights or mistakes. These are material omissions that in our view constitute another material breach."

Iraq's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Salmane said: "I would like to confirm that the Iraqi declaration is complete and comprehensive."

The document could be verified on the ground by U.N. inspectors, he added.

Iraq's representatives spoke Thursday after the Security Council meeting at which top weapons inspectors provided their first report on Iraq's declaration.

The United States previously had said that if a material breach were found, it might call for another meeting of the Security Council to discuss launching military action.

But a senior Bush administration official said Thursday that any such breach in Iraq's declaration would not be an immediate trigger for war. (More reaction)

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said earlier his country had no weapons of mass destruction, and that the United States was looking for a pretext to launch an attack.

"Iraq had no arms of mass destruction. I think the United States is well placed to know this in the first place but the United States is looking for a pretext for an attack," he told French RFI radio in a recorded interview through an interpreter.

"Every people and every nation has the right to defend itself through all possible means," Ramadan said.

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