WASHINGTON, September 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Continuing its attempts to justify a preemptive attack against Iraq as well as its policies in the region, the U.S. Wednesday, September 25, accused Iraq of helping Al-Qaeda developing chemical weapons and Iran of hosting Al-Qaeda camp, an accusation Iran has angrily rejected on Thursday, September 26.

Iran’s government reacted angrily to U.S. claims that a suspected al-Qaeda training camp had been detected near its border with Afghanistan.

“Such a camp does not exist anywhere in Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told Agence France-Presse (AFP), emphasizing the “disagreements that Iran has had from the very beginning with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.”

“Such accusations are part of a psychological war,” the spokesman said, complaining that “neither the U.S. government nor any other government has given Iran any proof or documents to back up such accusations.”

“As Iran has asserted on numerous occasions, these accusations are totally baseless.”

Quoting unnamed U.S. intelligence sources, NBC News reported late Wednesday that a spy satellite had detected a suspected al-Qaeda training camp in a remote area of eastern Iran.

It said satellite imagery had shown what appeared to be a camp complete with an obstacle course and a rifle range, much like those used by the international terror network led by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to train for assassinations.

While Iran’s civilian government may not know the training camp is there, Iran's military and intelligence certainly would, NBC News quoted the sources as saying.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has refused to comment on the story.

Meanwhile, the U.S. claimed, without presenting an evidence as usual, it has information that Iraq has helped train members of Al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development and has given refuge to some of the operatives of the terror network, a top White House official disclosed late Wednesday.

The remarks by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice marked the first time the administration of President George W. Bush has tried to substantiate its claim that the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the militant Islamic group led by Osama bin Laden had a working relationship, AFP said.

They also came when the debate over Iraq policy and other national security issues degenerated into loud political squabbling, as congressional Democrats accused Bush of trying to exploit the war on terror for political gain.

Appearing on PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” television show, Rice tried to move the discussion to a more substantive level as she offered a glimpse of Iraq’s suspected ties to Al-Qaeda.

“We clearly know that there were in the past and have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of Al-Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time,” said Rice.

“We know too that several of the detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development,” she added.

Rice said the U.S. government did not contend that Saddam Hussein was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when suspected Al-Qaeda hijackers rammed passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building outside Washington.

But she said that the secret ties between Baghdad and bin Laden’s terror network was “a story that is unfolding, and it is getting clear, and we’re learning more.”

“So, yes, there are contacts between Iraq and Al-Qaeda,” Rice insisted. “We know that Saddam Hussein has a long history with terrorism in general. And there are some al-Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad.”

She did not give any specific names to support its claims.

The national security adviser said that much of the new information about the relationship between Baghdad and bin Laden associates had been provided by terror suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere. These prisoners are held without evidences or trials and some reports suggested they have been subject to torture and mistreatment.

“There clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here,” Rice pointed out without providing details.