'We cannot delay for Iraq evidence'

America "cannot afford to wait" for more evidence that Saddam is building weapons of mass destruction before acting decisively, said US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld.

The hardline Pentagon chief reminded Americans in a TV interview that people made the mistake of waiting while Germany rearmed under the Nazis and made preparations for conquest, even though Hitler's plans were laid out in Mein Kampf.

He warned that another terrorist atrocity, this time involving a radioactive device, might be in store, and urged that action be taken before such a disaster hits the United States.

"The people who argued for waiting for more evidence have to ask themselves how they are going to feel at that point where another event occurs, and it is not a conventional event but an unconventional event, and ask themselves the question: Was it right to have wanted additional evidence or additional time, or another UN resolution?" Mr Rumsfeld told Fox News.

Mr Rumsfeld is attending a meeting at the summer White House in Crawford, Texas, tomorrow with President Bush's military, national security and intelligence advisers. Also present will be vice president Dick Cheney, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff General Richard Myers, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The official topic of the meeting is the modernisation of the Pentagon, but Mr Bush's aides say Iraq is certain to come up. They note that recent satellite pictures show Hussein is rebuilding chemical plants that were knocked out of action during the Gulf war.

The meeting comes as Mr Bush's Republican Party is split over whether to use military force to topple Hussein. Among those opposing is Dick Army, leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Mr Bush's father.

There are signs that the US military is already gearing up for an attack. Satellite pictures of a US airbase in Qatar show the base being expanded.

In the interview Mr Rumsfeld cited an incident in which a friend's wife was being harassed by a neighbour. The couple went to court asking for a restraining order.

" The woman was killed," he said. "When I went to the funeral, the postman arrived with a letter declining to issue the restraining order. There wasn' t hard enough evidence that this individual was harassing this woman.

"Concerning countries that build weapons of mass destruction, what evidence do we want?

"These things are hard to judge, and I'm not the one to answer them. They must be answered by societies, time history and by presidents."