Nijar Nijjof, who is based in Paris, told Britain's independent Channel Five News that he had been told about the weapons by a senior source inside Syrian military intelligence.

The unnamed source revealed the weapons were smuggled across the Iraq border in ambulances before the US-led war which toppled Saddam was launched in March, Nijjof said.

"I knew this man during the last two years, he sent me much information," Nijjof said of his source.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday rejected British and US calls to renounce weapons of mass destruction and indicated he would not abandon his country's suspected chemical and biological programmes unless Israel gave up its undeclared nuclear arsenal.

"We are a country which is (partly) occupied and from time to time we are exposed to Israeli aggression," Assad told the London-based Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"It is natural for us to look for means to defend ourselves," he added.

WAR.WIRE