Colin Powell's assertion of a "sinister nexus" between Iraq and al-Qaeda was met with skepticism and disappointment yesterday by some terrorism experts.

The U.S. Secretary of State rounded out his presentation to the United Nations Security Council with a detailed case that tried to tie Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. But few experts believe he had saved the best for last in his 80-minute presentation.

"I think that's why he did that [section] last, so that's what people will take away, even though it was a short section compared to the other parts," said Phyllis Benning of the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. "It was the least compelling in terms of the actual facts."

Mr. Powell said that for 13 years, Baghdad held at least eight meetings with al-Qaeda agents, many of them arranged through the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan.

He said that in 1996, Mr. bin Laden met a top Iraqi intelligence agent in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, al-Qaeda's home base at the time. And when Mr. bin Laden later relocated his terror organization to Afghanistan, Mr. Powell said, Iraq helped to train the group in document forgery and offered to assist in the development of biological and chemical weapons.

"Saddam was a supporter of terrorism long before these terrorist networks had a name. And this support continues," Mr. Powell said. "The nexus of poisons and terror is new. The nexus of Iraq and terror is old. The combination is lethal."

He also accused Iraq of harbouring a senior al-Qaeda agent, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, named by Jordanian authorities as the architect of the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Amman last November.

"I don't need to be convinced [of a link] because I believe there is one, but I have to say there was no evidence here of any smoking gun," said Israeli counterterrorism specialist Boaz Gano. "I think it helped [make the case against Iraq], but concerning the terrorism connection I was expecting more concrete facts."

As Mr. Powell prepared to release his dossier to the world, he was not aided by the simultaneous leak of a three-week-old classified British intelligence report stating there are no links between Baghdad and al-Qaeda.

BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan reported yesterday seeing a top-secret document saying that although there used to be a relationship between the two, it had collapsed because of mistrust and incompatible ideologies.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons he was unaware of that document until yesterday, but he reiterated that although there is nothing to connect Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks, "there are unquestionably links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. Just how far those links go is a matter of speculation."

Arab commentators derided the alleged connection in Mr. Powell's presentation. "This is very, very weak evidence," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds who has interviewed Mr. bin Laden. "There is no link with al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda hates Saddam, and they consider him a secular leader."

Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed al-Douri rejected the allegation, as well. "If we had a relationship with al-Qaeda and we believed in that relationship, we would not be ashamed to admit it," he told the Security Council, quoting Mr. Hussein from an interview aired a day earlier.

Magnus Ranstorp, deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism at Scotland's St. Andrews University, said that although he has no doubt Mr. Zarqawi has been in Iraq and "has been on the U.S. radar screen for a long time," he is not convinced Iraq is directing al-Qaeda terrorist operations.