WASHINGTON -- With military scenarios for waging war against Iraq already on U.S. President George W. Bush's desk, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld added to Washington's justification for ousting Saddam Hussein by accusing Baghdad of harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists.

"There are al-Qaeda in Iraq," Mr. Rumsfeld said, according to a Pentagon transcript released yesterday.

Although Mr. Rumsfeld drew no link between Baghdad and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, the accusation that Baghdad is harbouring al-Qaeda operatives is the first time a senior member of the Bush administration has implicated the Iraqi regime in assisting Osama bin Laden's militant Islamic group.

Mr. Bush has made "regime change" in Iraq a central U.S. foreign-policy aim, but the reasons for ousting Mr. Hussein keep evolving.

There were early allegations that a senior Iraqi agent had met the hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta in Prague. Although U.S. officials say the meeting took place, no evidence has directly linked Baghdad to the planning, financing or training for the Sept. 11 attack.

Initially, there were suspicions that Baghdad, which has long sought biological weapons, may have been behind the anthrax attacks last fall, but it has become increasingly evident that the spore-filled envelopes were of domestic, albeit still undetermined, origin.

In January, Mr. Bush labelled Iraq -- along with Iran and North Korea -- the "axis of evil," accusing those states of attempting to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them. All three pose a great danger because of their history of backing radical groups considered terrorists by Washington, the White House contends, although there is no evidence that any of them had offered to place weapons of mass destruction at the disposal of those groups.

Mr. Rumsfeld has now added a new casus belli: accusing Baghdad of harbouring al-Qaeda operatives that have fled the U.S. military dragnet in Afghanistan. While some countries -- notably Pakistan and Yemen -- are helping Washington track down al-Qaeda fugitives, "You can be certain we're not getting a lot of co-operation" from Iraq, Mr. Rumsfeld said Monday.

Mr. Hussein, a dictator who runs a relatively secular regime that has crushed any hints of Islamic radicalism, has little in common with Mr. bin Laden, an avowed Islamic militant, save bitter antipathy to the United States. But Mr. Rumsfeld, who first suggested a week ago that Iraq had "a relationship" with al-Qaeda, has now clarified that accusation by saying Mr. Hussein is harbouring al-Qaeda.

He elaborated neither on the number of al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq nor on their rank. And he did not suggest that Mr. bin Laden might be among them.

Ever since he declared war on terrorism, Mr. Bush has said he would draw no distinction between terrorists and those states who harbour or assist them.