London: Despite the failure of US-led coalition forces to find weapons of mass destruction from Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on April 28 claimed that evidence linking former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to other terrorist groups would emerge.

"As more intelligence emerges, in particular from inside Iraq and the former Iraqi intelligence unit, I think you will find increasing evidence of links between the previous Iraqi regime and terrorist organisations," Blair told a monthly press conference.

Hitting out at critics who say that failure in finding the illicit arms in Iraq has proved that the war was unnecessary, he called for caution "before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)".

Saddam's alleged programme to develop biological, chemical and nuclear arms was the main justification for US-led military action against Iraq. But no such weapon was used against invading coalition forces and there have been no confirmed discoveries of their existence by troops.

Blair suggested that Saddam hid his banned weapons before the arrival of UN inspectors and said it would take time to search all the identified sites.

Suggesting that Iraq did not unleash a chemical or biological strike against coalition forces because the weapons were concealed and unavailable for battle, he said, "It does not in the least follow from that, that they couldn't have been reconstituted had we all left Iraq and the weapons inspectors not been able to carry out their job."

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Blair stressed on the need for "independent verification" of Iraq's weapons program, but did not specify as to whether the task should fall on the United Nations.

"There was a six-month campaign of concealment of those weapons. That is our intelligence. There is no doubt in my mind that is that what happened. One benefit of that was that it was going to be far more difficult for them to reconstitute that material to use in a situation of conflict," Blair claimed.

The British Prime Minister said the coalition forces had identified around 1,000 Iraqi sites they want to search for banned weapons, but added that rebuilding the country was a higher priority than finding illegal arms.

"Our first priority has got to be to stabilise the country, the second is humanitarian situation, and the third, and we can take out time about this, and so we should, is to make sure we investigate the weapons of mass destruction," he said.

PTI