'Saddam dangerously close to nuclear bomb'

Members of Congress have been told "just how dangerously close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear bomb," according to those present at a secret briefing by US vice president Dick Cheney, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA director George Tenet.

They were given new intelligence about Saddam's development of weapons of mass destruction and systems to deliver them, and an outline of Iraq's progress in building unmanned drone aircraft capable of spraying chemicals on urban areas.

Most disturbing of all, the politicians were given evidence that both before and after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September, members of the al Qaeda terror network were in Iraq and talking to figures in Saddam's regime.

The White House has told reporters that Mr Bush's national security team is looking into a proposal that would use as many as 50,000 troops to back up UN weapons inspectors in Iraq to make sure they would be able to go anywhere at any time, without prior notice, and to enter mosques and palaces, including that of Saddam himself.

Leaders of Congress are insisting on as much information as possible to guide them as they consider approving a possible war against Iraq.

Senate majority leader Tom Daschle is also asking for President Bush to go to the UN and seek a resolution enabling military action to go ahead.

Mr Daschle said: "I would think the US would want to be in the same position it was at the point when we went to the UN in the early 1990s for the Persian Gulf War.

"If the international community supports it, if we can get the information we have been seeking, then I think we can move to a resolution. But short of that, I think it would be difficult for us to move until that information is provided and some indication of the level of international support is also evident."

But even after the secret briefing, Senator Bob Graham, head of the intelligence committee, still wanted evidence of an "imminent threat" before giving Mr Bush war powers.