Iraq issues challenge to Britain

The BBC's Tim Sebastian met Dr Naji Sabri

Iraqi Foreign Minister Dr Naji Sabri has challenged the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to prove that Iraq is housing weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Sabri threw down the gauntlet to Britain in an interview with Tim Sebastian for BBC HARDtalk.

If he is sure of this lie, let him send a team of British experts to Iraq.

Dr Naji Sabri

"We said to Mr Blair, declare the positions of these places and send the team of your inspectors to come to Baghdad," he said.

"If he is sure of this lie, let him send a team of British experts to Iraq to locate these things which he claims that Iraq has. We challenge him to prove his point."

Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke out in February about the importance of taking action against Iraq and other states which spread weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Sabri accused Britain and America of spreading lies about Iraq

However, he stopped short of endorsing US President George W Bush's description of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil".

In the interview, Dr Sabri went on to deny that Iraq had the capability to produce chemical and biological weapons.

"At present, there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," he said.

"There are no means of producing them. There is no intention in the government that the country should produce or acquire these weapons of mass destruction."

'Lies and Deceit'

He accused Britain and the United States of concocting and spreading a series of lies about Iraq and its potential threat to the international community.

"They are against this country," he said.

Saddam Hussein has governed Iraq since 1979

"They want any pretext to destroy this country because it is not in line with their policy. They would like to control Iraq - Iraq has a lot of oil - Iraq has a strategic position."

He also attacked President Bush's characterisation of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil".

"If the measure used by the United States of making somebody part of the axis of evil is the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, then the United States is number one in this axis and number two is Israel and number three is Britain." he said.

Evasive

Dr Naji Sabri was evasive about whether Iraq would accept the existence of an independent Jewish state of Israel.

"We do not accept the existence of a state at the expense of the right of other people. That does not mean we wish to destroy it," he said.

You can hear the HARDtalk interview in full at the following times:

BBC News 24 (times shown in GMT)
3 April 0430, repeated 2230

BBC World (times shown in GMT)
3 April 0430, repeated 1130, 1630, 1930, 0030