Donald Rumsfeld: No evidence

London, Oct. 5: Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, has said that he has seen no ?strong, hard evidence? linking Saddam Hussein with al Qaida.

Rumsfeld backed away from his pre-war assertions in which he had described extensive contacts between Iraq and al Qaida. He had claimed that contact between the two could be traced back over a decade.

The defence secretary made his comments when asked to explain the connection between Saddam and Osama bin Laden?s al Qaida network during a question and answer session of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Rumsfeld told the group: ?I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over a period of a year in the most amazing way. Second, there are differences in the intelligence community as to what the relationship was.

?To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two,? he added.

The main reason given for going to war was the threat posed by Iraq?s weapons of mass destruction. No WMDs have been discovered in Iraq.

However, the relationship between Saddam?s government and al Qaida, the group blamed for the September 11 attacks on America, also formed part of the case for war.

In September 2002, Rumsfeld had told the Pentagon that there was credible evidence of contact between Iraq and al Qaida at a senior level. This was said to include discussions on shared safe havens and training in the use of chemical and biological weapons.

He told the hearing that this evidence had turned out to be wrong, adding that he was not in a position to know why it had been wrong.