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Mr [COLIN Powell] said Iraq-based al-Qaeda operatives were linked to the discovery of the biological weapon, ricin, in London last month. The US secretary of state dubbed it a \"nexus of poisons and terror\". Mr Powell claimed Iraq allowed al-Qaeda to use its embassy in Pakistan as a \"liaison office\". Iraqi agents visited Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and provided training to al-Qaeda agents. According to Mr Powell, Iraq has not accounted for the thousands of chemical weapons left over from the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The Bush administration wants the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, to spirit key Iraqi weapons scientists out of Iraq. It is offering to set up what amounts to a witness protection programme for defecting Iraqi scientists in the hope that the scientists will come up with the crucial evidence the UN needs to declare Iraq in \"material breach\" of UN resolution 1441. In terms of air power, the US has not really boosted the numbers of tactical jets and strategic bombers it has in the Middle East patrolling the no fly zones over Iraq. It has however, dramatically increased the number of smart bombs, such as the satellite guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) available to the US air force . This means that the 200 or so US aircraft in the Middle East are more than capable of striking at the same number of targets in a day as the 1,000 jets it sent to fight the 1991 Gulf war.

Sources close to Israeli intelligence hinted last night that secret on-board defences on the passenger plane, and not pure luck, had saved the airliner from being shot down. Yigal Eyal, a Hebrew University lecturer on insurgency and former Israeli intelligence agent, said he was convinced anti-missile technology had been deployed by the plane. He said: \"Israel has been working on programmes to protect civil aviation from terrorist missile attacks since the 1970s. The Mombasa incident could mark a successful application of some sort of anti-missile technology aboard the plane.\" Amid growing consensus that the attacks in Mombasa were carried out by al-Qaeda or an affiliated group, the West's war has entered new and dangerous territory. \"Israel is now facing a huge body of terror ... and the threat from it is much bigger than the Palestinian terror,\" said Giora Shamis, the editor of DEBKA.com, a popular Israeli internet site specialising in intelligence matters. After the Bali bombings, where half of the 190 victims were Australians, both Canberra and Downing Street were criticised for failing to warn citizens adequately of possible terrorist attack. Yesterday, the questions echoed again in Westminster. Opposition politicians - armed with the knowledge that Britain, Australia and the US traditionally have a very special relationship when it comes to intelligence - demanded to know why Britons were not also warned. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, last night wrote to his Conservative Party shadow, Michael Ancram, insisting that UK intelligence agencies \"are in close and constant touch with our allies, sharing information and assessments. But each country makes its own judgment on how to respond to potential threats\".

Few observers now believe that [SADDAM Hussein] will hand a golden opportunity to his foes to attack Iraq by rejecting the UN demands outright. He will agree to let the inspectors return if only to \"string out the crisis\" and attempt to frustrate US and British attempts to build a new anti-Baghdad coalition, one western diplomat said. There are also reports from the Gulf region that Saudi Arabia is now working behind the scenes to persuade Baghdad to go along with the new inspection regime. The chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said an advance team of inspectors will arrive in Baghdad on 18 November after an absence of nearly four years . The rhetoric from Baghdad has been uncompromising, describing the US and British sponsored resolution as \"the law of evil\". While Baghdad has agreed to new weapons inspections in principle, it says the new resolution amounts to a declaration of war because it sets \"impossible conditions\".

They say he has been pressuring Gen Franks to push ahead with plans to take Baghdad quickly, putting political objectives ahead of military realities. Mr [DONALD Rumsfeld] has never been known for his tact and diplomacy, and certainly not in his dealings with the Pentagon top brass. It has left him with few friends among the generals and admirals, so it has come as little surprise that with the Iraq war running into trouble, the knives were quickly out for them. The article, by the veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, also said Mr Rumsfeld over-ruled advice from Gen Franks to delay the invasion. Gen Franks wanted to wait until US troops, denied access to northern Iraq by Turkey, could be brought in by another route, it said. Disagreements between Mr Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's uniformed military leadership over the plan to depose [Saddam] emerged last year. As the plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom evolved, he was said to have clashed repeatedly with both Gen Franks and the US army chief of staff, Eric Shinseki, who wanted at least 400,000 combat troops deployed to the Gulf ahead of any invasion.