Washington: US President George W Bush has said there was no evidence to suggest that the Saddam Hussein's regime was involved in the September 11 attacks, but there was a link between the deposed Iraqi leader and al-Qaida, the outfit that allegedly carried out the attacks.

"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties," Bush told reporters on September 17. But he also said, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11 (attacks)."

The US President's comment goes against a belief held by many Americans that Saddam Hussein had a role in perpetration of 9/11 attacks. An opinion poll last week found that nearly 70 per cent of Americans believed that Iraqi leader probably was personally involved in the attacks. The US administration has argued that Saddam's government had close links to al-Qaida.

Vice President Dick Cheney said, for instance, that success in stabilising and democratising Iraq would strike a major blow at the "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11."

And on September 16, in an interview on ABC's "Nightline", White House National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said that one of the reasons Bush went to war against Saddam was because he posed a threat in "a region from which the 9/11 threat emerged".

In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney was asked whether he was surprised that more than two-thirds of Americans in a 'Washington Post' poll would express a belief that Iraq was behind the attacks. "No, I think it's not surprising that people make that connection," he replied.

Rice, asked about the same poll numbers said, "We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9/11." US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has already denied that any evidence exists linking the former Iraqi leader with 9/11 attacks.

In the run-up to the US-led invasion on Iraq, Bush alleged close ties between Baghdad and al-Qaida, and summoned up the possibility of Saddam Hussein passing his lethal arms to bin Laden's followers.

PTI