WASHINGTON, Feb 5: The United States said on Tuesday that calling Iran, Iraq and North Korea an “axis of evil” was not a prelude to an invasion, as Tehran pledged to expel any Al Qaeda and Taliban members found on its soil.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said President George W. Bush’s characterization of the three states was “deserving,” but that the United States was not about to invade any one of them.

Iran, Iraq and North Korea “are deserving of this kind of designation, but at the same time it does not mean that we are ready to invade anyone or that we are not willing to engage in dialogue — quite the contrary,” Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In an apparent response to US claims that Iran was helping suspected al-Qaeda members escape from Afghanistan, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said Iran would deport to their home countries any al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters found within its borders.

“As we did five years ago we continue to arrest people who are illegally crossing our border with Afghanistan,” Kharazi told a joint news conference in Tehran with his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

“If there are some among them who are Taliban or al-Qaeda they are treated according to the law and would be deported to their country, this is our decision,” he said.

“The Islamic republic of Iran should be helped in its efforts and activities instead of being accused,” he added, saying that Washington should provide any information it had about wanted suspects.

US air power drove the Taliban regime from power in November and scattered the al-Qaeda network of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, accused by Washington of plotting the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Earlier, the Iranian foreign minister said Tehran would take its objections to the US-led war on terrorism to the United Nations, in a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Kharazi said US “militarism, unilateralism and the logic of might makes right” posed a “grave threat to global peace and security” after Bush proposed a budget with the largest increase in defense spending since the Cold War.

Iran, still smarting from being included in Bush’s “axis of evil” remarks last week, accused the US president of “diversionary sensationalism” and twisting the definition of terrorism while ignoring the root causes of the problem.

Iraq: Powell slapped down Iraq’s attempts to launch a charm offensive in the face of threats that it could be the next target in the US-led war on terrorism.

The US secretary of state said the United Nations should not engage in a dialogue with Baghdad until it allows UN weapons inspectors back into the country.

“There is reporting this morning that the Iraqi regime has asked the UN to have a discussion,” Powell said Tuesday. “It should be a very short discussion.

“The inspectors have to go back in, under our terms, under no one else’s terms, under the terms of the Security Council resolution,” Powell added.

Baghdad has held out an olive branch to Kuwait and said it was sending a delegation to Madrid to “reactivate” relations with the European Union (EU).—AFP