WASHINGTON, Feb 7: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday Iraq would likely not develop weapons of mass destruction capability soon but made clear President George W. Bush was considering military action anyway.

Bush said last month “rogue states” Iran, Iraq and North Korea were an “axis of evil” developing weapons of mass destruction and failing to fight terrorism. This added to Iraqi’ fears they could become the next target of US attack and prompted sharp denials from the three countries.

The Bush administration is determined to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to let back in UN weapons inspectors who have been kept out since 1998 and it accuses him of seeking to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

“The president is examining a full range of options on how to deal with Iraq,” Powell said, when asked by a lawmaker how certain Americans could be that the government would stop Iraq’s nuclear programme in the next year.

“I wouldn’t like to go into details of the options that are being looked at, but it is the most serious assessment of options that one might imagine, and he’s leaving no stone unturned as to what he might do,” he told the House of Representatives International Relations Committee.

Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet backed him up at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. “Let me be clear: Saddam remains a threat. He is determined to thwart UN sanctions, press ahead with weapons of mass destruction and resurrect the military force he had before the Gulf War” of 1991, he said.

“Today, he maintains his vise grip on the levers of power through a pervasive intelligence and security apparatus, and even his reduced military force — which is less than half its pre-war size — remains capable of defeating more poorly armed internal opposition groups and threatening Iraq’s neighbours.”

Various options apart from the military one are available to the administration, which had an official policy of “regime change” in Baghdad even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States put countries that it calls state sponsors of terrorism more firmly at the top of Bush’s potential target list.

TIME NEEDED: But Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman of California, questioning Powell during a hearing on the annual foreign affairs budget that included a wide-ranging debate on foreign policy, made clear he doubted the diplomatic option would work.