WASHINGTON, Feb 16: Saddam Hussein told aides he warned America before 1990 that terrorists would launch a huge strike on US soil, even raising the spectre of a nuclear attack, according to secret tapes obtained by ABC News.

The toppled Iraqi leader is heard on the recordings he made in his presidential office during the 1990s, ruling out any such strike by Iraq.

The recordings also feature members of Saddam’s family talking about how to conceal data on illegal weapons programmes from UN inspectors, according to ABC.

“Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans a long time before August 2 and told the British as well and that in the future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction,” Saddam is heard to say on the tapes.

The mention of ‘August 2’ on the tape, which ABC said was recorded in the mid 1990s, appears to be a reference to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

Saddam speculates that an attack with such weapons could be difficult to stop. “In the future, what would prevent a booby trapped car causing a nuclear explosion in Washington or a germ or a chemical one?” he said.—AFP