Iraq yesterday denied a US report that it had moved explosives into oil-fields in Kirkuk in the north of the country, dismissing the report from an official in Washington as a lie.
A US official had said earlier that Washington had "seen indications that Iraqis may be moving explosives into the oil-fields in Kirkuk".
US officials have previously warned that Iraq may try to set fire to its oil-fields as it did in Kuwait when its forces retreated at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
The Pentagon last week issued a statement saying "reliable reports" indicated that Iraq planned to blow up the oil-fields, "and in some cases may already have begun".
"Recent information revealed that Iraq has received 24 railroad boxcars full of pentolite explosives," the Pentagon statement said.
Iraq has denied it would destroy its own oil-fields in the event of an imminent US invasion. But an oil worker from Kirkuk who arrived in the Kurdish-held sector of northern Iraq said the oil-fields had been heavily mined and booby-trapped in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, said Iraq would fight the United States "to the last bullet" if Washington launched an invasion.
"We have the will to fight until the end. We are not going to surrender at all. We will fight to the last bullet," he said.
"Everything is prepared to resist, the military, the people, the [ruling Baath] party in every city, in every village," Mr Aziz told reporters after receiving a Spanish press delegation.
He denounced the "Rambo arrogance" of the United States, which along with Britain has massed more than 250,000 troops around Iraq for the anticipated assault.
But he said Iraq would be no easy prey.
"They cannot take Baghdad. They cannot take Iraq easily," he said.
"The Americans will be responsible for any massacre. We know they will destroy the bridges as they did in 1991, but we have plans to protect them, not only the bridges, but I cannot reveal them," he said.
By trying to pass a new UN Security Council resolution authorising the use of force, the United States and Britain were "pushing for war, and not \ to make sure that the disarmament process is complete," Mr Aziz said.
What interest did Spain, which is co-sponsoring the draft resolution with Washington and London, have in "being part of such a game which is full of lies and which pushes for war against a friendly nation like Iraq?" he asked.
Baghdad also pressed ahead with the UN-supervised destruction of its banned al-Samoud 2 missiles yesterday, destroying six more along with three warheads.
Six more al-Samoud 2 missiles and three warheads were destroyed at the Al-Taji military facility north of Baghdad, a UN arms inspectors' spokesman in Iraq, Mr Hiro Ueki, told AFP.
The team of United Nations inspectors "also inspected one command-and-control vehicle used to launch al-Samoud 2 missiles and eliminated all the computer software used for the launch," Mr Ueki later added in a statement.
- (AFP, Reuters)