WASHINGTON, Feb 13: US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday dropped the strongest hint yet that Iraq, rather than Iran or North Korea, could be Washington’s next target in the “war on terror”.

Mr Powell made it clear that President Bush had decided to topple President Saddam Hussein and pointedly did not rule out the possibility of a military confrontation with the Iraqi government.

While defending President George W. Bush’s description of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as “an axis of evil”, Powell said Iraq was a source of greater concern than the other two states.

“With respect to Iran and with respect to North Korea, there is no plan to start a war with these nations,” Powell told the Senate budget committee. “We want to see a dialogue.”

Powell’s fine-tuning of Bush’s stance follows criticism from some European leaders of the direction in which Washington’s “anti-terror campaign” is developing.

The European Union has distanced itself from Washington’s attacks on Iran in particular, arguing that they play into the hands of hardliners in Tehran.

The Philadelphia Inquirer said on Wednesday President Bush had ordered the CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies to devise plans to remove Saddam.

The newspaper said no military strike was imminent. But it quoted unnamed US officials as saying Bush had decided that Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes pose too great a threat to US security for Saddam to remain.

“This is not an argument about whether to get rid of Saddam Hussein. That debate is over. This is how you do it,” the Inquirer quoted a Bush administration official as saying.—Reuters