"These exhortations to violence, suicide bombings and what-not are dreadfully irresponsible," deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

"Suicide bombings only lead to one assured outcome and that is the death of the perpetrator," he told reporters.

"And so, the violence that these people are calling for is not going to accomplish anything. We are going to move ahead with our Operation Iraqi Freedom and give back Iraq to the Iraqi people," Reeker said.

His comments came in response to a speech from Saddam read on television by his Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf in which the Iraqi leader said holy war, or jihad, was a "duty" for Arabs and Muslims and called the US-led war an attack on "religion, property, people and honor."

Earlier Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told reporters that more than 3,000 Arab volunteers were in Iraq and ready to carry out suicide missions against the US-led coalition.

"More than half of them, martyrs, are ticking bombs and you will hear talk about them in the days to come," he said. "This is what we ask of the Arab populations."

Reeker said appeals such as these were a clear indication that Saddam's government cared little for the lives of the Iraqi people or others in the region.

"We condemn such calls," he said. "The kind of exhortations that we saw from the Iraqi information minister echo the callous disregard that Saddam's government has had for its people."

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