Iraqi madman Saddam Hussein will likely have a "Hiroshima-sized" nuclear bomb within the next 24 months, the physicist who headed up Iraq's nuclear weapons research program said Monday.

Citing U.S. intelligence estimates, Dr. Khidir Hamza told nationally syndicated radio taker Sean Hannity, "I don't think he has (nuclear weapons) right now but it may not take long for him to have it - a year or two probably."

"U.S. intelligence estimates at least a year. Germany estimates by 2005, three nuclear weapons," the top Iraqi nuke scientist said.

Dr. Hamza, who defected to the U.S. in 1994, warned about Hussein's nuclear weapons program in his autobiography, "Saddam's Bombmaker" three years ago. More recently he has been working closely with U.S. intelligence agencies.

He declined to describe the precise nature of his cooperation with those agencies, telling Hannity, "I cannot talk about that. You know that."

Hamza did reveal that the 1991 Gulf War interrupted Iraq's A-bomb program in its final stage, just as he and the rest of Saddam's nuke team were in the process of acquiring materials for the bomb's nuclear core.

HAMZA: We (scientists) dragged our feet. We really had enough material to make the bomb then. We delivered it now back to the French but we claimed that we could not extract enough uranium to put in a nuclear core....

HANNITY: So you're saying you did have enough - you could have built nuclear weapons but you dragged your feet?

HAMZA: We could have, yes. Actually everybody (dragged their feet), including the chemists who were in the process of extracting the uranium from the French bureau. Nobody wanted to give Saddam a bomb because we know he would use it recklessly and finish Iraq with it. (End of Excerpt)

German intelligence now believes Hussein once again has all the bombmaking materials he needs except for the enriched uranium necessary for the nuclear core.

"According to the Germans he, more or less, has 30 to 35 percent of the technology needed to enrich uranium for bomb grade," said Hamza, adding, "So he will have enough uranium and he already has a stockpile of uranium to use."

The top Iraqi nuke scientist said that, based on what he witnessed, Hussein is working on "Hiroshima-size" weapons of "12 to 20 kilotons."

But he cautioned:

"There was some enhancement to the bomb that could raise it to 40 kilotons. So you are looking at realistic nuclear weapons stockpile equivalent to that of, say, at least India and Pakistan - and if it continues, probably larger."

  Not to alarm, BB only post's em!