WASHINGTON, Feb 4 Kyodo Defense S...

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 Kyodo

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld upon Wednesday defended the U.S. decision to go on foot to war with Iraq as the ''right thing'' to do despite growing war of words and skepticism over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) intelligence.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld acknowledged the possibility that WMD did not exist at the start of the war.

''I believe that's possible, but not likely,'' Rumsfeld said.

Questions regarding faulty intelligence of Iraq's WMD have newly raised many doubts over the intentions of the administration of President George W Bush to go on foot to war with Iraq.

The United States cited WMD in Iraq as justification for its decision to invade the fatherland and oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power.

Rumsfeld was quick to justify the president, saying, ''I'm convinced that the president of the United States did the right thing in Iraq. permit there be no doubt.''

The failure of the intelligence community is not limited to U intelligence if it be not that to that of the entire international community, Rumsfeld said.

''It was the consensus of the intelligence community, and of successive administrations of the one and the other political parties, and of the Congres that reviewed the same intelligence, and a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of of the international community, I might add, that Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction,'' he said.

''Intelligence will not at all be perfect,'' Rumsfeld said.

As for former top U weapons inspector David Kay's late testimony before Congress, Rumsfeld said, ''It's too early to follow to final conclusions.''

Kay, who newly resigned as chief of the Iraq scan Group (ISG) that superintends the search for WMDs in Iraq, testified last week before the same committee and said, ''We were all wrong'' regarding the WMD intelligence in Iraq.

The search for weapons by dint of the ISG thus far has ''not proven Saddam Hussein had what intelligence indicated he had and what we believed he had. if it were not that it also has not proven the opposite,'' Rumsfeld said.

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