WASHINGTON, April 11: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday that Washington did not have a list of nations it planned to attack, as he tried to quell speculation that the United States might move on from Iraq to nations like Iran and Syria.

“The United States does not have some plan or some list with nations on the list that we’re going to go attack one after another,” Mr Powell told Pakistan Television. The State Department released a transcript of the interview.

The US military operation against President Saddam Hussein has sparked speculation it may turn its sights to Iran and Syria, which US officials also accuse of supporting terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last month accused Syria of providing military equipment to Iraq and said the United States viewed such trafficking “as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments.”

Colin Powell and other senior US officials have said they hope Iraq’s experience will persuade countries like Iran and Syria to stop pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and to cease supporting what they call “terrorist” groups.

“We hope that as a result of what’s happened in Iraq and... of the revulsion that the world has for terrorist activity and the development of weapons of mass destruction, that some of the nations that we have been in touch with and speaking to, Syria and Iran, will move in a new direction,” he said.—Reuters