Rumsfeld leaves Kuwait for Bahrain; accuses Iraq

The US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld has expressed his hope that the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will be toppled during the period of time when he is still a defense minister.

In a press conference he held on Monday prior to leaving to Bahrain from Kuwait, Rumsfeld said "the world will be better without the Iraqi regime," considering that the solution in Iraq will be by changing the regime.

The US defense secretary also rejected the Iraqi denial on developing its mass destruction weapons, he said they are ( the Iraqis ) are lying. They own it ( the mass destruction weapons) and continue to develop them.

Rumsfeld said that the US had sent to the ( ME) region more military equipment and weapons to be used in the war against terrorism, which it had already started in Afghanistan in October, 2001.

Meantime, American defense sources said that the shipment movement of the American army in the region has been recently increased. A matter which confirms news that the military operation against Iraq has become near.