We are fully alert, ready and with our weapons in our hands to fight against any new threat

Lieutenant General Shaheen

"Let him make threats. Others have done the same before him," he warned, in a reference to the outgoing administration of US President Bill Clinton.

The comments came in response to Mr Powell's claims on Saturday that "Saddam Hussein is sitting on a failed regime that is not going to be around in a few years' time."

Little change at the top

At the political level, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has played down the impact of the change of administration in Washington.

Baghdad says that the new administration will mean no policy change

In the highest-level Iraqi reaction since George W Bush was finally confirmed the victor of 7 November elections, he said: "Be the American Government Republican or Democrat, there will be no change in American policy" towards Baghdad.

"In America, there's an institution that governs: that's money, which confers power," he told reporters.

An official of Iraq's ruling Baath party, meanwhile, urged the Bush administration "to opt for dialogue, and not force, to settle outstanding problems".

Past failures

"The language of threats has failed in the past and it will fail in the future," said Saad Kassem Hammudi.

In contrast, the Iraqi opposition-in-exile said on Sunday that it would work with the new US administration to topple Saddam Hussein.

"We want to co-operate more closely with the new administration, to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein and establish democracy in Iraq," said a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress.