President George W. Bush's national security adviser says Iraq is sheltering members of al-Qaeda.
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U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (L) and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice talk in the Oval Office of the White House.
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Ms Condoleezza Rice says Saddam Hussein's regime is also helping Osama bin Laden's operatives develop chemical weapons.
Her comments are by far the strongest statements yet from the US government alleging al-Qaeda contacts with the Iraqi government.
Ms Rice told PBS television: "We clearly know that there . . . have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time.
"We know too that several of the al-Qaeda detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development".
The widely held view has been that although Saddam and bin Laden both oppose the US, their motivations are too different for them to work together.
Saddam seeks secular power; bin Laden's drive comes from religious motivations and his opposition to the US military presence in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world.
But Rice said, "There clearly are contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented; there clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here". She suggested that details of the contacts will be released later.
PA