"We have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction -- that is what this war was about, and is about -- and we have high confidence it will be found," he told reporters.

US-led forces have yet to discover the chemical and biological arms US President George W. Bush said were grounds for the invasion. Baghdad has always denied possessing such banned weapons.

But Fleischer said that as the situation in Iraq becomes more stable, Washington hopes that Iraqis themselves -- either involved in such weapons programs, or with knowledge of caches -- will help.

There are "people who may have knowledge about it, who want to provide that knowledge to the United States or to coalition allies so that evidence of weapons of mass destruction can indeed be unearthed or found," he said.

"We've always said that we have information that they have weapons of mass destruction; the precise location of where it is is information that the Iraqi people can be helpful with," he said. "Something will be found."

"What we have is a regime that was a master at hiding it, that had set up a very large and elaborate infrastructure for the sole purpose of hiding it," Fleischer said.

The spokesman also categorically rejected suspicions in some quarters that the United States might plant such weapons if its forces fail to find them as "nothing but nonsense" and "the stuff of conspiracy theories."

SPACE.WIRE