WELL, IF HE SAID IT - IT MUST BE TRUE

Iraq's former Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said on Wednesday Iraq had destroyed all banned chemical weapons, missiles and its nuclear programme immediately after the 1991 Gulf War.

Sahaf -- nicknamed ''Comical Ali'' during the U.S.-led war -- was speaking to Abu Dhabi television in the first of a seven-series programme about his account of the war that toppled President Saddam Hussein. Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction were a key justification for launching the war.

"Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, this is the truth,'' he said. ''The chemical weapons and missiles were destroyed since the 1991 war, also the nuclear programme.''