Saddam sheltering al-Qa'ida, Bush tells UN

The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein must be stripped of his weapons of mass destruction or be ousted from power, President George Bush said today.

In a powerful speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the president told delegates that the regime in Baghdad represented "a grave and gathering danger" to global peace and security.

He accused Saddam of sheltering and supporting terrorist organisations directing violence against the West, and claimed that al Qaida members were hiding in Iraq.

And he warned that if Iraq succeeded in acquiring fissile material from abroad, it could build a nuclear weapon within a year.

Speaking the day after the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks that decimated New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, President Bush laid down a challenge to the UN, saying that Saddam's continuing defiance of Security Council resolutions relating to his weapons of mass destruction meant that the UN itself faced a "difficult and defining moment".

He demanded: "Are UN resolutions to be honoured and enforced or cast aside without consequence?"

And he made clear that if the UN failed to rein in Saddam, the US would use force to remove him from power in Baghdad.

President Bush said that the UN Security Council's resolutions would be enforced "or action will be unavoidable – and a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power".

Speaking just ahead of President Bush, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan argued that when states sought to use force to deal with broad threats to international security "there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations".

But Mr Annan told delegates that he wanted those international figures with influence over the Iraqi regime to emphasise to Baghdad "the vital importance" of readmitting UN weapons inspectors.

And he told the General Assembly that "If Iraq's defiance continues, the (UN Security) Council must face its responsibilities."