He also said testimony by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the UN Security Council to justify the war "will be proved right."

The administration of President George W. Bush has been under increasing pressure to explain why none of the WMDs Iraq was supposed to have had have been found in the six weeks since the end of the war despite intensive searches of suspect sites.

Several former intelligence agents have accused the White House of having exaggerated the WMD threat to justify the war.

Congressional panels, including the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, are to hold hearings to clarify the Iraqi WMD mystery and also to establish whether there had been political pressure on CIA analysts, as the press has alleged.

WAR.WIRE