BAGHDAD -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused UN arms inspectors on Monday of engaging in spying and charged that the United States was plotting to "occupy" the oil-rich Persian Gulf region.

"Instead of searching for so-called weapons of mass destruction in order to expose the lies of the liars, the inspection teams have been compiling lists of Iraqi scientists, asking questions with undeclared purposes, and inquiring about army camps and non-prohibited armament," Saddam said.

"All this, or at least most of it, is sheer intelligence activity," he said in a televised speech marking the country's Armed Forces Day.

The United States, backed by Britain, accuses Baghdad of developing weapons of mass destruction and is threatening to invade the country and topple Saddam, AFP reported. The Iraqi leader said the United States was applying "psychological pressure" to make the UN experts, who resumed arms inspections in Iraq on November 27 after a four-year break, "go beyond the UN Security Council's declared objectives."

Although Saddam effectively blamed the United States for driving the inspectors into "intelligence" pursuits, his remarks contrasted with the positive tone Baghdad has adopted toward the disarmament experts since they relaunched the inspection process, interrupted when their predecessors fled Iraq on the eve of a December 1998 U.S.-British bombing blitz.

Baghdad repeatedly accused inspectors of the former UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) of spying on Iraq on Washington's behalf, but has cooperated with the new inspection teams in the hope they will prove its contention it no longer has prohibited weapons and thus derail U.S. war plans.

Saddam also charged that U.S. war plans against Iraq were part of a broader scheme by the administration of President George W. Bush to "occupy" the Persian Gulf.

"Behind this uproar and self-defeating pandemonium, the enemy is pursuing several objectives and Iraq is not the only target," he said. "The objective is to fully and effectively occupy the Persian Gulf in order to achieve several goals ... secure control of its resources and fragment some countries, a dream he (the enemy) has nurtured since the 1970s." Saddam said the "enemy" was seeking to "control access to the Red Sea and Arabian Sea with a view to ensuring security for the Zionist entity (Israel) and securing oil and military transport routes."

Plans to attack Iraq were also aimed at "covering up the weaknesses of (U.S. security) agencies ... vis-a-vis the events (anti-U.S. attacks) of September 11, 2001 and the near-collapse of the United States economy."

Moreover, Washington was trying to divert attention from the "failure of U.S. military policy in Afghanistan in the face of local resistance there," Saddam said.

But he vowed Iraq would emerge "victorious" from a showdown with the United States, which is engaged in a massive military buildup in the Persian Gulf in preparation for a possible war.

"You should know that you are victorious now, and that you will also be during the final confrontation, despite the fuss and hysteria kicked up by the enemy," Saddam told the armed forces on the 82nd anniversary of their formation. His remarks were echoed by Monday's state-run press, which said Iraq's Army was ready to stand up to any new U.S.-led "aggression."

"Our valiant army will fight the infidel armies which Bush is boasting of, and it is capable of ... teaching the aggressors, mercenaries and U.S.-Zionist tyranny a bitter lesson," wrote the daily Al-Jumhuriya. Foreign Minister Naji Sabri predicted, for his part that U.S.-led plans to attack Iraq would be consigned to "the dustbin of history."

"They (Americans) are nurturing impossible dreams which, thanks to peoples' will power, will end up in the dustbin of history," he told reporters after laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier for Armed Forces Day. Reiterating that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, Sabri denounced the "lies and disinformation" propagated by "the warmongers of the U.S. administration."