Saddam Hussein has well-established links with terrorist groups, the shadow defence secretary has claimed.

Speaking during a Commons debate on defence issues, Bernard Jenkin called on the government to make it clear that Iraq backed al Qaeda and was still helping known terrorists.

His comments came a day after Tony Blair said there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein with the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

But Jenkin told MPs that the government should be making greater efforts to set out the links between Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism.

He pointed out that an attack on the Twin Towers carried out in 1993 was "known to have been supported by Saddam Hussein".

"Saddam Hussein was the only world leader actually to welcome the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York and the attacks on the Pentagon at the time," Jenkin added.

According to official American documents, the day after the attacks the Iraqi leader said: "The United States reaps the thorns its rulers have planted in the world."

However, the prime minister has said that Saddam Hussein was not linked to the terror attacks or al Qaeda.

"Whenever I am asked about the linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq, the truth is there is no information I have that directly links Iraq to September 11," Tony Blair told MPs on Tuesday.

"If I can just be absolutely frank with you, there is some intelligence evidence about loose links between al Qaeda and various people in Iraq, but I think that the justification for what we are doing in respect of Iraq has got to be made separately from any potential link with al Qaeda.

The prime minister added that there could be "a potential linkage" between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

But Jenkin claimed there were "substantial links" between Iraq and terrorist organisations.

He said there had been "speculation in the press, that may or may not but probably is, based upon sound judgement that there are very substantial links between Saddam Hussein and terrorist networks".

"He has in the past worked with al Qaeda, he has sheltered known terrorists, he is today assisting certain terrorist movements...I do think the government needs to make that fact clearer," Jenkin told the Commons.

"It is the recent arrests of suspected terrorists in this country along with the discovery of materials contaminated with the lethal poison ricin that seems to have galvanised the prime minister and his government to make the link between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and rogue states."