US: President George Bush, who recently claimed that Saddam Hussein was "no more", admitted yesterday that the former Iraqi dictator is probably behind many of the attacks on American troops in Iraq.
Asked if Saddam was involved in the anti-American insurgency, Mr Bush told reporters: "Oh, I'm sure he's trying to stir up trouble," but that American forces would get him.
The "torturers and murderers and thugs that used to benefit from Saddam Hussein's regime" were some of the ones creating havoc in Iraq, said Mr Bush, who was answering reporters' questions on a trip to California.
"He's no longer running a country," Mr Bush said. "He's no longer threatening people, and he is no longer in power. We'll get him, we'll find him."
Today in Washington Mr Bush will sign an $87.5 billion spending package for military and reconstruction operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the largest military and foreign expenditure measures in US history.
The bill passed its final stage in the Senate on Monday evening and gives Mr Bush virtually all he asked for. Senators dropped a demand that $10 billion earmarked for construction in Iraq should be in the form of loans rather than grants after Mr Bush threatened a veto.
The final vote was an anticlimax, with only Senator Robert Byrd, a consistent opponent of the war, shouting "No" in a sparsely attended chamber.
Senators voted for a voice vote rather than a roll call to avoid going on the record as opposing an unpopular bill which would be seen to deny support for US troops abroad.
The bill provides $64.7 billion for military operations mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, $18.6 billion - $1.7 billion less than Mr Bush requested - for rebuilding efforts in Iraq, and $1.2 billion for reconstruction in Afghanistan and support for Pakistan, Jordan and other friendly countries in the region.
Meanwhile the Bush administration has rejected a request by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr Mohammed ElBaradei, to allow nuclear arms inspectors back into Iraq.
UN officials withdrawn from Iraq for security reasons will meet in Larnaca this weekend with senior UN officials from New York to discuss how to go forward in Iraq. A significant UN presence is unlikely to return until there is stability, according to a UN source.