When US Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council this week to convince his audience why an assault o­n Iraq was necessary, he presented an unprecedented abundance of sensitive intelligence information.

In an exclusive interview with malaysiakini , US ambassador to Malaysia Marie Huhtala said Powell's presentation shows the serious effort taken by the US government to convince the UN and the public that the Iraqi military had indeed conspired to conceal weapons.

She claimed the presentation, in which Powell played tapes of intercepted conversations and showed satellite pictures, was convincing enough to prove that Iraq had not fulfilled the UN disarmament it had pledged at the end of the 1990 Gulf War.

"The speech he (Powell) gave was unprecedented in the amount of sensitive intelligence information. This is a serious effort o­n our part to convince the UN and public around the world, including US citizens, that we are not making this up. We know that these things (weapons) are there (in Iraq) and we are deeply concerned," she said.

"We have a lot of information and evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction which are carefully hidden, that they stopped the UN inspectors from carrying out their duties in a proper manner and that they are cooperating with terrorists".

UN sanction not necessary

Huhtala said the US government was doing its best to prove the serious threat that Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein were posing to the world.

She said that Powell's presentation was not a "justification for war" and that the Secretary of State was merely responding to the needs of Resolution 1441 (the disarmament resolution).

"This is why the US was ready to lay its best information available to demonstrate that Iraq has not complied with the resolution", she said.

Aware of the unfavourable reactions to the presentation, she said the US may not need to get the UN sanction to legitimise their war against Iraq as the Resolution 1441 (gives them authority to undertake military action against Iraq if the resolution is not fulfilled).

"War is not our first priority. But the resolution clearly states that there would be serious consequences if Iraq does not cooperate (to disarm) and that means military action. Now the President would welcome a second resolution - something similar to the security action to begin military action. But we don't feel that we absolutely need it," she explained.

Mistakes possible

Asked why would the world believe the evidence offered by the US when a similar presentation which initiated the 1990 war had proven to be false a year later, Huhtala said she has no knowledge about the issue.

She, however, agreed that satellite images and other kinds of intelligence are open to various interpretations and mistakes can be made when interpreting them.

She also asserted that at this point, it was all up to Iraq whether a war could be avoided, adding that it should take advantage of UN chief inspector Hans Blix's visit to Baghdad this week to comply with the resolution.

"Iraq has been given a last chance to comply. If it does not comply there would be a war. And the President says that there is no time-table but we are not going to wait indefinitely. And we are looking at weeks instead of months. They have to make a drastic change in the way they are approaching the issue," Huhtala said.

Asked o­n the US refusal to accept UN inspectors' words that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Huhtala claimed the inspectors never said that.

"What they (UN inspectors) said was that: they did not see any weapons there, which means that Iraq had not shown them the weapons," she explained.

Reiterating Powell's statement, Huhtala said the UN inspectors are not detectives and it is not their job to find the alleged hidden weapons, adding that the burden of proof (that there is no hidden weapons) lies with the Iraqis.

"There are many ways that Iraq can demonstrate they are cooperating. For example, they can give a full account of what (disarmament) had been carried out before. They can take the inspectors to places where the weapons are made and demonstrate how they were destroyed," the ambassador said.

None except Iraq

As to critics that the US lacked credibility as it failed to deal with its allies like Israel and Pakistan who have nuclear weapons, Huhtala said that the situation is not as serious as it is in Iraq.

"No other country has the combination of arsenal that Iraq has - massive quantities of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. There is no other country that has all these things in such concentration."

"And he (Saddam) has stated his willingness to use it. There was a day in 1988 that he used (poisonous) gas in a town in northern Iraq and 5,000 people died in o­ne day. He used it against his own people and he is certainly capable of using it against the rest of the world," Huhtala said.

Asked o­n the US reluctance to stop the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the envoy said that while the o­n-going conflict has cost a lot of lives, the threat of casualties coming from Iraq is much more serious and the US must deal with the issue urgently.