PARIS, April 12: Richard Perle, one of the U.S. architects of the aggression against Iraq, has warned Syria that Washington would “have to respond” if Damascus was hiding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

In an interview published on Saturday in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, Mr Perle said that if the administration of President George W. Bush learned that Syria had these weapons, “I’m quite sure we would have to respond to that”.

A member of the influential Defence Policy Board, which advises the Pentagon, Perle said that Washington’s first move would be to demand that Syria turn over the weapons of mass destruction it had.

“Failing that, I don’t think anyone would rule out the use of any of our full range of capabilities,” Perle said.

In the interview, Mr Perle also said that the threat posed by terrorists looking to acquire weapons of mass destruction forced the United States to follow a policy of preemptive war, as it did with Iraq.—dpa