Byline: EUAN HAMILTON

PRIME MINISTER Tony Blair yesterday said there was "no doubt at all" that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

He insisted they were an immediate threat when he sent our troops to war in Iraq.

And he said he would produce a new dossier of evidence to prove it.

Speaking during a visit to St Petersburg, Russia, as part of a gathering of world leaders in the city for its 300th anniversary, the Prime Minister added: "There's a reason why we had 12 years of UN resolutions, inspectors going in, inspectors going out.

"Those weapons of mass destruction were a major part of Saddam's regime."

Blair is under increasing pressure over claims that Saddam could mount a biological strike in 45 minutes.

But he insisted he had private intelligence not available to the public which confirmed the existence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

He went on: "Over the coming weeks and months we will assemble this evidence and then we will give it to people.

"I have no doubt whatever that the evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction will be there.

"If you take the two trailers that we have already found, which American intelligence agencies believe are part of a mobile biological weapons production facility, there's no doubt at all that this is part of a weapons of mass destruction programme.

"As I pointed out, there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of potential WMD sites that are still being investigated. We have only just begun that task."

Blair denied any difference of opinion between London and Washington - after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's reported comments that Saddam had destroyed his weapons before conflict began.

He said: "There's nobody on either side of the water who is in any doubt about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. …