Blair insists Iraq wanted WMD

2004-10-06 20:39

Addis Ababa - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday said that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had planned to develop weapons of mass destruction, despite a new US report saying he had no such weapons nor plans to make them.

"I welcome the report because I think it will show us that it is far more of a complicated situation than people thought," Blair said, in reference to a report by the chief US weapons inspector to be released later on Wednesday.

"It is also clear that there was every intention on Saddam's part to develop weapons and that he did not have any intention of complying with the UN resolutions," Blair told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, following a trip to Sudan.

- AFP