Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Worried

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the world must act on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and not stand by as it did with Afghanistan.

Talking on Australia's Nine Network "60 Minutes" television programme, he refused to be drawn on whether Iraq would be the next target in the US-led war on terror over its alleged weapons programme.

But he acknowleged late Sunday: "It is clear we need to deal with this issue. Iraq are in breach of all the UN resolutions on weapons inspectors. We know they're trying to accumulate these weapons of mass destruction.

"We know, because Saddam has used them against his own people, that (why) he's prepared to use them."

Baghdad has already dismissed Blair's claims and said it would welcome a British delegation to check the allegations.

But Blair warned that for too long the world had stood by and left Afghanistan in isolation, allowing terrorists to gain a secure foothold there.

The al-Qaeda network of chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden was "now defunct" after the launch of the campaign in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, but the world had to remain vigilant.

US President George W. Bush's description of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil" was deliberate "because there is a trade in these weapons of mass destruction," Blair charged.

Britain has already warned Iraq that it could face military action over its programme of weapons of mass destruction, but stressed that no decision had been taken yet.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said that London would be prepared to support US strikes on Iraq "if the right conditions were set out."

Blair warned that if weapons of mass destruction were to fall into the hands of terrorists "we know that they have both the capability and the intention of using them.

"Then I think we've got to act on it, because if we don't act, we may find out too late the potential for destruction."

(China Daily March 4, 2002)