Saddam 'determined to get nuclear bomb'
05/02/2003 18:54  - (SA)  

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United Nations - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is determined to get hold of a nuclear weapon, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday, citing a "decade of proof" of Iraq's clandestine nuclear programme.

"Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb," Powell told a packed meeting of the UN security council.

Powell said that Iraq had undertaken a "massive clandestine nuclear programme" in the early 1990s, developing sophisticated techniques of gas diffusion, gas centrifuge and laser isotope separation.

"If Saddam had not been stopped, he would have produced a bomb by 1993," he said.

The secretary of state also said Baghdad had, between 1999 and 2000, negotiated with companies in India, Romania, Russia and Slovenia to buy magnets and other equipment needed in the production of nuclear weapons.

On the question of aluminium tubes recently imported by Iraq, Powell acknowledged there were "differences of opinion" on their use, with some experts suggesting they were for conventional weapons production and others pointing to possible nuclear weapons use.

However, Powell stressed that the tubes were "manufactured to a tolerance far higher than US requirements for conventional weapons." - Sapa-AFP

 

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