Rumsfeld: No evidence of al Qaeda-Saddam link

Donald Rumsfeld has admitted for the first time that he has seen no "hard evidence" linking Saddam Hussein with the al Qaeda network, it emerged today.

In front of an audience in New York, Mr Rumsfeld said that intelligence about the connections between Saddam and Osama bin Laden had changed in the past year in a most "amazing way".

He added: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."

Mr Bush's justification for war after the September 11 attacks was based on proving Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he was a supporter of terrorism.

Mr Rumsfeld had spoken of credible information about a link in the past and, fearing further ammunition against Mr Bush in the election campaign, the Pentagon issued a statement disclaiming the comment only hours later.

Mr Rumsfeld said his off-the-cuff remark had been "regrettably misunderstood", adding that there had been ties between al Qaeda and Iraq since September 2002 .

The defence secretary also contradicted himself on weapons of mass destruction.

During the session at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Mr Rumsfeld said flatly that intelligence about such weapons before the invasion was faulty.

"It turns out that we have not found weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"Why the intelligence proved wrong I'm not in a position to say, but the world is a lot better off with Saddam Hussein in jail." A day earlier in a

television interview in the United States, Mr Rumsfeld had said he believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction before the war, and the truth may unfold over months or years.

"I believe they were there, and I'm surprised we have not found them yet," Mr Rumsfeld said.

"He has either hidden them so well or moved them somewhere else, or decided to destroy them .. . in event of a conflict but kept the capability of developing them rapidly."

Mr Rumsfeld said " everyone believed" Saddam had the weapons before the war.

"Even the people at the UN who voted the other way acknowledged the fact that he had filed a fraudulent declaration," he said.

In response to other questions, Mr Rumsfeld said Iran was engaged in "a lot of meddling" in Iraq, and Syria has been "notably unhelpful" by refusing to release frozen Iraqi assets and by allowing foreign terrorist movements across its border with Iraq.

He added that he does not expect civil war in Iraq and highlighted the recent retaking of the former insurgent stronghold of Samarra as evidence of progress in stabilising the country before elections in January.