Reports that Iraq may have nuclear weapons in three years underline the need to contain President Saddam Hussein, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said today.
"The reports, from German intelligence, should reinforce to Arab countries that we have to reinforce the UN resolutions that Saddam Hussein agreed to at the end of the (1991) Gulf War", he told a news conference after talks with Israeli Prime Minister-elect Mr Ariel Sharon.
"We have to make sure he is denied the opportunity to continue moving in this direction", Mr Powell said.
"We have to make sure that we do everything we can to contain him, to constrain him, to get inspectors back in under the terms of the UN resolutions".
Mr Powell, on a Middle East tour, said the weapons Saddam was trying to develop would be aimed at the people of the region.
The German intelligence report, published in German newspapers yesterday, said Iraq might be able to menace its neighbours with nuclear weapons in three years and fire a missile as far as Europe by 2005.