British ex-MP conducts interview with Saddam

5.00pm

BAGHDAD - British Labour politician Tony Benn says he has filmed an hour-long television interview with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the first in over a decade.

He said that on Sunday he had asked Saddam "very simple and very short questions" during the interview that dealt with weapons of mass destruction, links to al-Qaeda terror network and oil.

"This was a much more focused visit to have an opportunity for a television interview where he (Saddam) will be able to make his own case to the world," Benn, 77, a former long-time member of parliament, told a news conference in Baghdad.

Benn said he did not want to reveal Saddam's answers in the interview earlier in the day "because I am hoping that within the next day or two, the whole interview will be broadcast in its entirety."

He did not say when or where the interview would be broadcast. He was leaving for London via Amman late Sunday.

"He has not given a television interview I believe for 12 years, and the fact that he had agreed to see me was an indication of the importance he shows in doing that," Benn said.

Benn met Saddam in 1990 when he came along with other British politicians to seek the release of British civilians in Iraq following Baghdad's invasion of neighboring Kuwait.

He said the reason for his current visit to Baghdad was "to explore possibilities of a peaceful solution to a problem, that otherwise might lead to the most catastrophic war in which innocent people will be killed with long-term consequences."

The United States, backed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has threatened to attack Iraq if Baghdad fails to give up alleged weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies having such weapons.

Benn, who met other senior officials in Baghdad, said he believed "the march to war" could be stopped and proposed that a delegation of Nobel peace prize winners visit Iraq to find ways to avert war.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq