Saddam denies link with al Qaeda in CBS interview

WASHINGTON - President Saddam Hussein denied in a US television interview that Baghdad had any connection with al Qaeda or its leader Osama bin Laden and said he would not consider going into exile if the United States launches an invasion to disarm Iraq and remove him from power.

In a three-hour interview with CBS News anchor Dan Rather, to be aired on the network's 60 Minutes II programme on Wednesday (Thursday NZT), Saddam also dismissed any suggestion that Iraq would set fire to its oil fields in a "scorched earth" response to any US attack.

Asked bluntly whether he had any connection with bin Laden or al Qaeda, as has been frequently alleged by the Bush administration, Saddam responded: "Iraq has never had any relationship with al Qaeda and I think that Mr bin Laden himself has recently, in one of his speeches, given such an answer that we have no relation with him."

The United States blames al Qaeda for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and has made a hunt for the network's leaders the focus of a worldwide "war on terror".

The Iraqi leader also said he would refuse any offer of asylum and vowed to die in his country and rather than go into exile.

"Whoever decides to forsake his nation from whoever requests is not true to the principles," he said. "We will die here. We will die in this country and we will maintain our honor, the honor that is required in front of our people."

In what CBS said was the first interview with an American journalist in a decade, Saddam told Rather he would not set fire to oil wells or blow up dams -- a strategy the US military has warned he may resort to -- to impede any invasion force.

"Iraq does not burn its wealth and it does not destroy its dams," Saddam said. "We hope, however, that this question is not meant as an insinuation, so that the Iraqi dams and the Iraqi oil wells will be destroyed by those who will invade Iraq in their possible invasion of the country."

Excerpts of the interview, which was conducted on Monday, have been aired on CBS over the past two days.

The Iraqi leader also challenged US President George W Bush to a televised debate and said he saw no reason to destroy dozens of missiles that United Nations weapons inspectors say have a greater range than permitted by UN mandates.

Saddam flatly denied any of the advanced al-Samoud missiles are in violation of UN limits.

"Iraq is allowed to prepare proper missiles and we are committed to that," Saddam said. "We do not have missiles that go beyond the proscribed range."

The Iraqi leader now faces a test of whether he will destroy the missiles by March 1 as ordered by the chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix.

The White House quickly rejected Saddam's offer of a debate with Bush, saying it was "not a serious statement."

Rather said he found Saddam to be outwardly calm but expecting that war will come.

"He knows that the time for the invasion is very near. He takes seriously what President Bush has been saying," Rather said.

Saddam believes that if it comes to war, Iraq will have to "absorb a tremendous first and maybe second punch from the United States and its allies" but his country will be able to withstand that punch and emerge undefeated, Rather said, adding that Saddam did not accept that he lost the 1991 Gulf war.

- REUTERS