Saddam accuses US of plotting to occupy Gulf

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused UN arms inspectors Monday of spying and charged that the United States was plotting to "occupy" the Gulf as Washington reportedly drew up plans to govern Iraq after his ouster.

"Instead of searching for so-called weapons of mass destruction in order to expose the lies of the liars (the United States and Britain), the inspection teams have been compiling lists of Iraqi scientists, asking questions with undeclared purposes, and inquiring about army camps and non-prohibited armament," Saddam said.

"All this, or at least most of it, is sheer intelligence activity," he said in a televised speech marking the country's Armed Forces Day.

The Iraqi leader said the United States was applying "psychological pressure" to make the UN experts, who resumed arms inspections in Iraq on November 27 after a four-year break, "go beyond the UN Security Council's declared objectives."

Saddam, under threat of a US invasion aimed at toppling his regime, accused the administration of US President George W. Bush of plotting to "occupy" the oil-rich Gulf region.

"Behind this uproar and self-defeating pandemonium, the enemy is pursuing several objectives and Iraq is not the only target," he said.

"The objective is to fully and effectively occupy the Arab Gulf in order to achieve several goals... secure control of its resources and fragment some countries, a dream he (the enemy) has nurtured since the 1970s."

But Saddam vowed that Iraq would emerge "victorious" from a showdown with the United States, which is engaged in a massive military buildup in the Gulf in preparation for a possible war against Iraq.

"You should know that you are victorious now, and that you will also be during the final confrontation, despite the fuss and hysteria kicked up by the enemy," Saddam told the armed forces on the 82nd anniversary of their formation.

His remarks were echoed by Monday's state-run press, which said Iraq's army was ready to stand up to any new US "aggression."

"Our valiant army will fight the infidel armies which Bush is boasting of, and it is capable of... teaching the aggressors, mercenaries and US-Zionist tyranny a bitter lesson," wrote the daily Al-Jumhuriya.

The United States, continuing to beef up its forces in the Gulf, said a giant hospital ship equipped to treat wounded soldiers would set sail for an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean Monday.

The announcement followed an unconfirmed media report that US special forces and CIA teams had already been secretly sent to Iraq, despite Bush's repeated assurances that he had not yet decided whether to go to war.