At a press conference held in Baghdad after the UN Security Council meeting closed in New York, al-Saadi said that the evidence presented by Powell "is simply untrue and not genuine."

"Iraq has not hidden weapons of mass destruction. The idea of concealment is American idea," he said. "The satellite photos presented by Powell are 'manufactured' and prove nothing."

The whole matter that Powell did was a violation of the UN Resolution 1441, because he should submit his information to UN inspectors, he added.

The inspection work rests with the two international agencies, namely UNMOVIC and the IAEA, instead of the United States, al-Saadi said, accusing the United States of trying to undermine the credibility of the UN arms inspectors.

Meanwhile, he denied that Iraq has any link with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, as Powell accused that the Iraqi ambassador in Pakistan was the liaison officer to do the job.

Al-Saadi noted that the information Washington got from Iraqi defectors was "valueless", because the aim of these defectors was to have some personal gains.

Earlier on Wednesday, Powell made an intelligence presentation to the UN Security Council, proving that Iraq has weapons of chemical and biological weapons, and has been trying to contain all the three elements needed to produce nuclear weapons

Powell accused Saddam of "material breach of UN Resolution 1441"and "is wasting the last opportunity to disarm peacefully."

Foreign ministers of China, Britain and Russia expressed their attitudes on the Iraqi issue after Powell's speech, and endorsed the value of the US intelligence.

China, Russia and France, however, stressed the importance of peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis within the UN framework, while British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accused that Bagdad was in "further material breach" of UN resolutions, and threatened to resort to force in face of the Iraq's "real threats" to international peace and stability.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2003)