Washington: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that President George W Bush would lay out further evidence of the threat posed by the regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein in the coming weeks.

Some of this evidence could be presented at a briefing of key legislative leaders at the White House on September 4, while more could be released during congressional hearings later this month, he said.

"What the President wants to do, and will do in his own time, is to provide information he feels is important with respect to any judgment he decides to make," Rumsfeld said.

He said while Bush has not made a final decision on how to deal with Iraq as yet, "the policy of our government has been regime change" in Iraq that deposes Saddam Hussein.

"It's been regime change by the Congress, by the successive executive branch over the past two administrations," he said.

Rumsfeld said that the desire to see such a change is due to the belief that "the world would be a better place if there were a government in that part of the world that was not developing weapons of mass destruction, was not on the (state- sponsored) terrorist list, did not pose threats to its neighbours, did not repress its people and subject its minorities to abuses, and did not have any development of weapons of mass destruction".

PTI