A defiant President Saddam Hussein said today he was not scared by US threats to topple him and said those who attack Iraq will be "digging their own graves".
His 22-minute televised speech to the nation was high on rhetoric but Washington branded it irrelevant and the United Nations said it gave no rise to optimism that Iraq would admit UN arms inspectors, seen as key to avoiding a possible war.
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Saddam, showing no signs of flinching in the face of sabre-rattling by President George W. Bush, said Iraq would resist any attack. Calling the United States an arrogant aggressor, he said: "Darkness shall be defeated."
"The forces of evil will carry their coffins on their backs, die in disgraceful failure, taking their schemes back with them, or digging their own graves," he said in the address marking the anniversary of the end of the disastrous 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Washington said the speech contained nothing new. "(It is) bluster from an internationally isolated dictator, demonstrative yet again that his regime shows no intention to live up to its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions," a State Department spokesman said.
Mr Bush has called Saddam a threat to peace and seeks a "regime change" in Baghdad.
Saddam made no new offers on his dispute on letting arms inspectors back into the country to look for weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, he sought an "equitable dialogue" with the United Nations and repeated his position that the UN Security Council should reply to a list of questions and honor what he said were its obligations on easing trade sanctions.
UN sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. Arms inspections followed after a US-led coalition drove Iraq out of Kuwait the following year.
Iraq has held three rounds of talks this year with UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan to discuss the return of the arms inspectors, who left in 1998 before a US-British bombing raid.
The talks are stalled, and Mr Annan said he saw no sign in the speech of a shift in Iraq's refusal to readmit inspectors and no cause for optimism unless there were "unforeseen developments."
"I don't see any change in attitude," Mr Annan said.
He said he had received no response from the Iraqis to a letter he wrote two days ago telling Baghdad it had to send a formal invitation for UN inspectors to return to Baghdad before further substantive talks could be held on arms issues.