"We do have to demonstrate to the world that those weapons of mass destruction are there in Iraq," Hoon said on public television ahead of talks here late Tuesday with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Hoon said he had no doubt that the banned weapons would eventually be found, but asserted that Saddam's regime had at least six months to hide the arms and it could take as long to track them down.

"What Saddam Hussein did in the period from the start of the renewed UN weapons inspection was, as I indicated, to separate out the different elements, to hide them, scatter them across Iraq, to put them in all sorts of unusual and unconventional places," he said.

"He had six months or more in which to hide weapons of mass destruction, we've had nothing like that amount of time in which to make these investigations," Hoon said, adding that he was certain the proof would be found.

"We're confident about that, otherwise I assure you we would not keep repeating this," he said.

Legislative inquiries are underway in both Britain and the United States about the credibility of intelligence reports used by the United States, Britain and Australia to justify the war against Iraq.

Hoon reiterated British government denials thats intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been doctored to justify the war.

Howard has so far resisted opposition demands for a similar parliamentary inquiry in Australia, which was the only other country to join the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.

WAR.WIRE