US: President Bush is still examining all his options on Iraq and "no attack option or military option has been brought forward by the President's advisers", the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, insisted yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press.
Speaking from Japan, where he is part of the US delegation with the President, Mr Powell said that there was still no evidence to link President Saddam Hussein to September 11th but Iraq remains "worrisome" because it continued to seek weapons of mass destruction which could fall into the hands of terrorists.
Until the regime changed, Mr Powell said, Iraq's neighbours "have much to fear".
Asked if the US could take action on its own without the support of Russia and European allies, Mr Powell said it was "possible, but more difficult if we don't have access in the region".
On Friday, Vice-President Dick Cheney went further in insisting the US would not be dissuaded from taking action it thought necessary.
Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Mr Cheney said: "America has friends and allies in this cause but only we can lead it.
"Only we can rally the world in a task of this complexity against an enemy so elusive and so resourceful. The United States and only the United States can see this effort through to victory," he said.
Mr Powell denied suggestions that the President's comments on the "axis of evil" had been embarrassing to him. "I was part and parcel of the drafting of the speech," he said insisting that it was important to send a signal to Iraq's people that its "unelected leadership was not serving them well".
On North Korea, Mr Powell said the US was prepared to meet the country's leadership "at any time and without preconditions". It was an opportunity Pyongyang should seize, he said.
And he sharply rejected criticisms of his interview on MTV last week during which he had advocated the use of condoms to help stopping the spread of AIDS.
The comments, which have attracted the disapproval of right-wing "pro-family" groups, were perfectly consistent, Mr Powell said, with US Administration policy which started with abstinence but urged the sexually active to use condoms.
"Abstinence, faithfulness, and yes, condoms," he said, insisting that "to say anything else in the face of the AIDS pandemic would be irresponsible".
