"It is too early to hand down a definitive verdict on the existence of these weapons until the end of hostilities," Rasmussen told reporters.

Earlier Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

"We know that the regime has them. We know as the regime collapses, we will be led to them," Blair said.

But Rasmussen stressed that the US-led war on Iraq was "not justified by the presence of weapons of mass destruction alone".

"In any case, the goal of this action is to disarm Iraq. It is not only about chemical weapons. It is also about long-range missiles, Saddam Hussein's violation of UN resolutions, his cooperation with terrorists and pursuit of a nuclear weapons programme," he said.

"We will only have an overview (of the presence of weapons of mass destruction) when the fighting is completely over and the coalition forces have full access to all the hiding places in Iraq," the Danish leader said.

Denmark has contributed a corvette, a submarine and 160 crew to the US-led war effort.

SPACE.WIRE