WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said on Sunday he disagreed with the recent assertion by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency that Iraq (news - web sites) was not developing nuclear weapons.
With President Bush (news - web sites) working on a final endgame in the standoff with Iraq over alleged weapons of mass destruction, Cheney said U.S. intelligence experts disagreed with the finding by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei in a Feb. 14 report to the Security Council.
The United States has maintained Iraq is not disarming as required by the United Nations (news - web sites) and has been massing troops in the Gulf region for a possible war.
"We know (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)) has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons," Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I think Mr. ElBaradei, frankly, is wrong. And I think, if you look at the track record of the International Atomic Energy Agency in this kind of issue, especially where Iraq's concerned, they have consistently underestimated or missed what it was Saddam Hussein was doing.
"I don't have any reason to believe they're any more valid this time than they've been in the past," Cheney said.
The public rebuke of the nuclear watchdog was unusual, as U.S. officials have generally avoided taking issue with the findings presented to the Security Council in the past months as they have moved to corral international backing for an attack on Iraq.
ElBaradei and fellow chief weapons inspector Hans Blix have been leading the effort to ensure Iraq is complying with U.N. disarmament demands. "We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq," ElBaradei concluded.