IRAQ has given its first warning to the West that it does possess weapons of mass destruction and that President Saddam Hussein would be prepared to use them if his regime was threatened.

The remarks were a complete contradiction of the official Iraqi position. Baghdad has insisted repeatedly that it no longer has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons nor medium-range missiles.

Speaking in an interview with al-Quds al-Arabi, a London-based Arabic newspaper, an unnamed senior Iraqi official said that Iraq had used chemical weapons during the war with Iran and would use them again if necessary.

“When the regime was under intense attack in the Fao (Peninsula) and began to be under threat, it did not hesitate to use all the weapons of mass destruction in its possession,” the official told the newspaper in an article published on Tuesday.

“Similarly, when the people of Halabja, or some of them, became guides for the Iranian forces that tried to break the northeast (front), the regime did not hesitate to use chemical weapons. Do not expect us to stand idly by in the face of any aggression that seeks to destroy and banish us not only from the regime but also from life.”

The paper declined yesterday to name the source, who also gave details about preparations under way by the Iraqi military to defend itself in the event of war.

In spite of Iraq’s denials that it possesses chemical and biological weapons, it has been given until December 8 by the United Nations to make a full admission of its weapons of mass destruction capability. If it does not, the United States and Britain have given warning that they will disarm Saddam by force, if necessary.

British sources said yesterday that the newspaper interview appeared to confirm their strong suspicions that Iraq is concealing tonnes of chemical and biological weapons, about 20 Scud missiles and a secret nuclear programme.

“I am not surprised by these threats,” a British official said. “As we stated in our dossier earlier this year, there is strong evidence that Iraq is hiding chemical and biological weapons. They never accounted for huge stockpiles left over from the Gulf War and later development.”

Western military commanders take the threat of the use of these weapons on the battlefield very seriously, particularly if Saddam is cornered. “In strict military terms, these weapons are not very effective in killing and wounding an opponent,” a senior British military source said, “but the psychological impact on troops is tremendous.

“There are few soldiers who will stand and fight in the face of a chemical attack. We have to work on the assumption that Saddam has them and will use them.”

That assumption is based on Iraq’s behaviour during its war with Iran, when it used chemical weapons extensively against Iranian infantry on the southern front and to subdue Kurdish civilians in the north.

The Iraqis are said to have contemplated using biological weapons, in particular anthrax germs, as a weapon of last resort. Iraqi defectors also claim that chemical weapons loaded on to Scud missiles would have been fired against Iranian cities if the war had continued.

Before the Gulf War in 1991, President Bush sent a letter to Saddam giving warning that he would “pay a terrible price” if he used weapons of mass destruction against coalition forces. In the event, Saddam fired Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia, but always with conventional warheads.

American and Israeli forces are preparing defences against missile attacks. Anti-missile batteries have been sent to the region to defend the United States’s allies. Earlier this week the American military, with Israeli observers present, test-fired a Scud missile in California to study its trajectory and improve missile defences.

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