"The president has repeatedly expressed his confidence that as a result of the actions that we have put in place with the Department of Defense undertaking the search, with the increased number of personnel DOD has now to carry out its mission, as well as the interviews that are being done and will be done with mid-level Iraqi officials, including scientists, the review of the paperwork that we're finding, as well as the expertise of (former UN weapons inspector) David Kay, who is now helping, that we will indeed find the weapons of mass destruction," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Kay was recently appointed as a special adviser to the Central Intelligence Agency in the search for Iraq's weapons.

US-led forces have yet to locate conclusive evidence backing the US leader's central case for war: that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons, pursued nuclear arms, and might one day have armed terrorists with them, even after years of intrusive UN arms inspections.

The US Congress is looking into US intelligence claims leading up to the war.

"The reason I think you are seeing it play out in the manner it is is exactly because of the lengths that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi officials went to hide the weapons of mass destruction that they had," Fleischer said.

"To suggest that Saddam Hussein threw out the inspectors and therefore used the fact the inspectors were gone to destroy his weapons is fanciful. It's a fit of imagination."

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