"Iraq does not burn its wealth and it does not destroy its dams," Saddam says in the interview filmed Monday in Baghdad. 

The Iraqi also said his country had never had any links to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network. "I think that Mr. bin Laden himself has recently, in one of his speeches, given such an answer that we have no relation with him." 

In a portion of the interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Saddam directly rejected such a connection. 

"Iraq has no connection with Mr. Osama bin Laden." 

Saddam also said he would obey any new Security Council resolution if he determined it did not violate Iraqi rights. 

"If there are new resolutions that violate our dignity, our security, our independence, then it will be clear that we will stand by our principles," the Iraqi leader said. 

In a part of the interview that CBS aired Tuesday, Saddam indicated he would not heed a U.N. demand to destroy Iraq's Al Samoud 2 missiles. He said his missiles didn't exceed ranges allowed by the United Nations. 

But Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, insisted Tuesday that the government had not yet decided whether to destroy the Al Samoud 2s. "It's being studied," Aziz said. 

"Readiness for the aggression is continuing ... but this doesn't mean that we should stop our political and diplomatic work," Aziz said. "We should continue with it, but we should also prepare ourselves for the battle." 

U.N. inspectors visited a pit where Iraq says it destroyed biological weapons in 1991, and Iraq reported finding two R-400 aerial bombs that can be filled with biological or chemical agents at a disposal site. In New York, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said one of the R-400 bombs was filled with "a liquid that appears to be biological." 

"We have made some progress. In fact, we have made some breakthroughs," said Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi, Saddam's adviser on the inspections. 

Blix has ordered Iraq to begin destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles and their components by the end of the week because the missiles can fly farther than the allowed 93 miles. 

Hiro Ueki, the inspectors' spokesman in Baghdad, said Tuesday that the Al Samoud 2s are still being produced and tested. He said the last test took place Monday. 

Al-Saadi said Iraq was still studying the U.N. order and that he would not comment on the Saddam interview because he had not seen it. 

Ueki said the United Nations was still awaiting an official response on the missiles. The inspectors have completed tagging all deployed Al Samoud 2 missiles but still needed to tag some unassembled components, he added. 

An Iraqi refusal to comply with the destruction order, could swing some support to a draft U.N. resolution submitted Monday by the United States, Britain and Spain to pave the way for war. 

Editorials in Iraqi newspapers Wednesday appealed to Security Council members to reject appeals for support from the United States. 

"Security Council members have a great responsibility ... to make sure that the Security Council is a tool to preserve security, not a a tool or a cover used to wage aggressive wars," al-Thawra, the newspaper of the ruling Baath Party, said in a front-page editorial. 

Ueki said inspectors have begun to visit excavations by the Iraqis southeast of Baghdad at a site where Iraq says it destroyed bombs filled with biological agents in 1991. On Monday and Tuesday, inspectors examined munitions fragments around the pit, he said. 

A team of inspectors returned to the site on Wednesday, Iraq's Information Ministry said. 

It said other teams visited a missile factory, a cement plant, a communications shop, and that inspectors resumed work destroying old stores of mustard gas that Iraq reported. Inspectors also were seen entering a Peugot service center.