General Hossam Mohammad Amin vowed Iraq would submit a "huge declaration" by Sunday's deadline, but reiterated that Baghdad had none of the weapons of mass destruction that Washington has said it must own up to or risk military action for "lying".

"It will be a huge declaration containing new elements, containing new sites, new activities conducted during the absence of inspectors," said Amin, who heads Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate.

"It covers biological, chemical, missiles, nuclear but there are no prohibited activities," he told a news conference.

"We have absolutely no weapons of mass destruction."

Amin said Iraq's declaration had been drawn up by a large team of experts in accordance with its reading of Resolution 1441 in which the UN Security Council set out the tough new disarmament regime last month.

Evidence would be provided to back up the assertions in the document which could be checked out by UN weapons inspectors.

Resolution 1441 gave Iraq until Sunday to provide a "currently accurate, full, and complete declaration of all aspects of its programmes to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other delivery systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles and dispersal systems.

"False statements or omissions in the declarations submitted by Iraq ... shall constitute a further material breach of Iraq's obligations and will be reported to the Council for assessment."

US President George W. Bush has put it more bluntly, saying any "lying" by President Saddam Hussein's regime will prompt Washington to lead military action.

"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer Monday.

"We have intelligence information about what Saddam Hussein possesses. He has chemical and biological weapons and he has missiles that can reach in excess of 150 kilometers, all three of which are violations of his sworn commitments to the United Nations."

Fleischer Wednesday flatly rejected Amin's insistence that Iraq had no mass destruction weapons but stressed Washington would make no formal response until it had had a chance to assess Baghdad's written submission.

"We believe, and we have said publicly, they continue to have weapons of mass destruction, biological weapons and chemical weapons," he said.

The president "is less interested in any of these statements that Iraqis happen to make. He's more interested in what they put in writing and present."

Fleischer said a formal US response would only be available after completion of the time-consuming process of assessing the Iraqi statement and whether it was accurate.

Amin rejected charges renewed by Fleischer Monday that Iraq had sought to procure aluminium tubes as part of a covert nuclear weapons programme.

He confirmed that two orders for tubes had been placed 18 months ago although never implemented, but insisted that their purpose had been to provide replacements for large numbers of tubes imported since 1987 as part of a project for artillery with a range of 10 kilometres (six miles).

Iraq was still permitted to pursue the artillery project under UN disarmament resolutions, he said.

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