Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has said that "evil tyrants and oppressors" will not be able to unseat him and his government. The US has branded Iraq part of an "axis of evil" supporting terrorism, and President George W Bush has vowed to pursue the Iraqi leader's removal. "You will never defeat me this time. Never!" said Saddam Hussein, speaking in a televised address.
"Even if you come together from all over the world, and invite all the devils as well, to stand by you," he added.
ANNIVERSARY SPEECH

The Iraqi president did not make specific mention of the US or threats of military action, but he implicitly warned other Arab countries not to back any US campaign.

Iraq has denied US allegations that it is developing weapons of mass destruction.

The prospect of US military action increased earlier this month, when talks between Iraq and the United Nations on the return of UN weapons inspectors to Baghdad broke down.

Saddam Hussein was speaking on the 34th anniversary of the 1968 coup d'etat which brought his Baath Party to power.

DR MISFIR'S INTERVIEW
Saddam Hussein sought to rally the Arab world against U.S. plans to topple him, saying in a rare interview published Tuesday that any American action against Iraq would be an attack on all Arabs.

Saddam's comments came as the Pentagon's No. 2 official was in Turkey - a neighbor of Iraq and a key U.S. ally - trying to drum up support for military action against Iraq.

Turkish leaders, however, appeared reluctant. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that an attack on Iraq would throw Turkey's fragile economy into "chaos," the Anatolia news agency reported.

Saddam appeared confident Iraq could defend itself, said Mohammed al-Misfir, a political science professor at the University of Qatar, who conducted the interview in Baghdad.

"America loves war and it has declared its stance toward Iraq and other nations, but we will confront this aggression with all available force," Saddam said, al-Misfir told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"All the Arab nation is targeted. The battle is not about Iraq but about the nation as a whole," Saddam said in the interview, published in several Arab newspapers, including Qatar's Al-Sharq and the Emirates' Al-Khaleej.

Al-Misfir, former editor-in-chief of Qatar's daily Al-Rayah, would not say how the interview was arranged. Saddam rarely speaks to reporters but regularly delivers televised speeches or issues statements through his government.

In his interview, Saddam called Washington's move against him a "Zionist-American (aggression) against the Arab world represented by Palestine and Iraq."

Saddam also praised Resistance attacks against Israel, saying they will be "recorded in our history with shining letters."
"Whenever a (Resistance) attack occurs against the enemy, I feel as if I carried it out myself and every Arab should look at these acts this way," Saddam said.

According to an April official Iraqi news agency report, Palestinian bombers' families have been receiving 25,000 U.S. dollars from Saddam, who likes to be seen as the Palestinians' best ally and equate Iraq's plight with that of the Palestinians.

PHOTO CAPTION

Saddam Hussein speaking on the 34th anniversary of the 1968 coup d'etat which brought his Baath Party to pow