The United States and its allies in the war on Iraq have little doubt that former President Saddam Hussein remains in Iraq and will eventually be caught, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Wednesday.

Hoon, on a visit to Australia, also reiterated his view that Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction would be found in time and rejected suggestions that intelligence on Baghdad's arsenal was in any way distorted to justify an invasion.

"As far as the location of Saddam Hussein is concerned my judgment and the judgment of the coalition remains that he is almost certainly still in Iraq," Hoon told the National Press Club in the Australian capital Canberra.

"I think the fact that as each day goes by we are successfully rounding up still more names on the list, that shows that we are having successes in locating particular individuals and I'm confident that eventually we will locate Saddam Hussein."

Saddam's fate since US, British and Australian forces rolled into Baghdad two months ago is unknown.

US officials say they believe he survived air strikes and at least one letter and audio message purportedly from Saddam have appeared since the end of the war on April 9.

Close

Today's Top News		Top International News
+The next great leap after Shenzhou V ( 2003-10-21) +Hu calls for balanced development ( 2003-10-21) +Report: SARS not airborne virus ( 2003-10-21) +Japan urged to resolve weapons issue ( 2003-10-21) +Int'l AIDS group opens Beijing office ( 2003-10-21)		+US hopes Iraq fund will attract donors ( 2003-10-21) +Bolivia ex-president vows to return ( 2003-10-21) +UN report: US war on terror radicalizes Arabs ( 2003-10-21) +Israel raids in Gaza kill 10, wound 100 ( 2003-10-21) +EU ministers arrive in Iran for nuclear talks ( 2003-10-21)