US officer downplays al-Qaida nuclear threat

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has downplayed concerns that al-Qaida inspired elements might use weapons of mass destruction in attacks against the West.

Chertoff on Friday told students and journalists gathered at the famed debating society, the Oxford Union, that the United States was more concerned that terrorists would use conventional weapons against America rather than nuclear or biological weapons.

"In the immediate or near term, the focus is on conventional weapons which can still be quite damaging. Something on the scale of 9/11 or the attacks on your transportation system," he said referring to the 2005 suicide bombings on the London transport system that killed 52 commuters.

"We have to look at the whole spectrum," he said. Chertoff's remarks followed the release of a video called "Nuclear Jihad: The Ultimate Terror" which urged Islamic militants to use nuclear or biological weapons against the US.

The video which began recently appearing on al-Qaida affiliated forums presents the US as vulnerable to such attacks.

Having such a weapon would act as a deterrent against using a nuclear weapon against an Islamic country, the video suggests.

But Chertoff dismissed the idea that such an attack was imminent though he said that officials remained concerned that al-Qaida is interested in developing such capability.