¡¡¡¡BAGHDAD, July 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein called the US and British allegation about Iraq's threat a "harmful joke" on Tuesday.

¡¡¡¡Saddam jeered the US-British rhetoric that Iraq is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons at a meeting with the country's atomic energy experts, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

¡¡¡¡"The American and the British spoke in a way like a joke when they said if Iraq is left alone, it will produce such and such weapons, and may put the products under the service of terrorism," Saddam said at the meeting with Dr. Fadhil Muslim Al-Ganabi, the chairman of the Iraqi Atomic Energy Organization, and other expertsfrom the body.

¡¡¡¡"This speech was so close to a joke, but they meant to harm, i.e. to prevent any Arab or Muslim from being developed," Saddam said.

¡¡¡¡US President George W. Bush has branded Iraq as part of an "axisof evil," along with Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and accused them of pursuing weapons of mass destruction andsupporting terrorism.

¡¡¡¡Bush has repeatedly vowed to achieve a "regime change" in Iraq with all the tools at his disposal, including military actions.

¡¡¡¡"We'll use all tools at our disposal to do so (topple Saddam)," Bush said at a press conference earlier this month in the White House, reiterating the US policy aimed at ending Saddam's rule in Iraq.

¡¡¡¡British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a close ally of Bush, has warned that Saddam's weapons program constitutes a "gathering threat" and preemptive measures should be taken to counter it.

¡¡¡¡The United States and Britain have been demanding Iraq allow theUN arms inspectors back after an absence of more than three years.

¡¡¡¡UN arms inspectors left Iraq on the eve of the US-Britain "Operation Desert Fox" airstrikes against Baghdad in December 1998 and have since not been allowed back.

¡¡¡¡In the face of war threats, Iraq has remained defiant, arguing that its weapons of mass destruction have already been dismantled and the return of the arms inspectors to Iraq is then unnecessary. Enditem

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