The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has revised a statement he made earlier in which he said he had seen no strong evidence linking the ousted Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
In a new statement on the US Defence Department website, Mr Rumsfeld said he had acknowledged since September 2002 that there were ties between the two.
On the website, he lists what he says are arguments for suggesting links, including what the CIA regarded as credible evidence that al-Qaeda leaders had sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire weapons of mass destruction.
The alleged link was one of the reasons given by the Bush administration for the invasion of Iraq last year.
Earlier at a meeting in New York, Mr Rumsfeld was asked to explain the connection between the former Iraqi leader and al-Qaeda. He said he has seen no strong evidence of any link between the two.
