Rumsfeld claims more support than in 1991

More countries would back an American-led war on Iraq than the 33-strong coalition in the 1991 Gulf war, even without a second UN resolution, Donald Rumsfeld claimed in an interview broadcast last night.

The US defence secretary, talking to the BBC's David Dimbleby, also diverged from the opinions of the UN weapons inspection team when he said he believed that Saddam Hussein was capable of building new prohibited weapons even while the inspectors were in Iraq.

"I keep reading that the United States is unilateralist and that we're, quote, 'going it alone'," Mr Rumsfeld said. But "there will be more countries, with or without a second UN resolution, involved in a coalition of the willing, if force has to be used, than there were in the 1991 Gulf war, in my judgment".

The countries actively involved in 1991 included three of Washington's most implacable opponents this time round - France, Germany and Syria - along with Pakistan, one of the council members whose vote remains unclear.

The White House reiterated its plans to seek a vote next week. The chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, is to deliver his next report to the UN security council on Friday.

Flatly contradicting the words of Mr Blix's deputy, Demetrius Perricos, who said at the weekend that the inspectors' "presence in the country is preventing any [prohibited] activities from being regenerated at the moment", Mr Rumsfeld told the BBC that the Iraqi leader might still be developing chemical or biological weapons.

"You're not saying ... that he could seriously go on creating weapons of mass destruction?" Mr Dimbleby asked. "Oh sure," Mr Rumsfeld replied. "He does things underground. He's very skilful at denial and deception."

Underscoring the Bush administration's position that Baghdad's destruction of its Samoud missiles did not constitute a radical shift towards cooperation, Mr Rumsfeld said: "Every single thing that he does that anyone could cite as cooperative was after some long period of denying, a refusal to do it, and ultimately a willingness to do part of it."

He conceded that Washington would probably have won more international backing on Iraq if, in Mr Dimbleby's words, the administration had "spent a fraction of the time on the Israeli-Palestinian problem" that it had spent on Iraq.

But, he said, Mr Bush and the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, had been working hard on it. "And I think that had there been success there, there would have been possibly greater support."

Mr Rumsfeld declined to fully withdraw multiple references he made last year to the "so-called occupied territories", introducing an ambivalence that is not part of the official White House line.

Asked if he believed the territories were occupied or not, he said: "I think that's what a negotiation is going to solve."