The offer was revealed in a private meeting between Iraq's United Nations ambassador, Nizar Hamdoon, a well known protege of Saddam, and senior officials of NBC News, including executive vice president Bill Wheatley and foreign editor John Stack.

A pledge of confidentiality was requested at the time, but Ambassador Hamdoon died in NYC last year after a long battle with cancer, and the story can now be reported.

During the meeting at NBC headquarters, Hamdoon told the news officials: "We don't want a war with the United States. We know we can't fight a superpower."

Hamdoon repeatedly stated that Baghdad wanted to establish a "friendly" relationship with Washington.

"We are your only answer to the radicals in Tehran [Iran]. We are also ready to sell you cheap oil and sign contracts. Let us meet away from the press and negotiate. No preconditions."

Hamdoon, formerly the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. in the 1980s, explained that Saddam sent him to the U.N. to "open a channel" to the White House.

At the time of Hamdoon's posting, Madeleine K. Albright was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Albright's hostility to the Iraqi government was legendary in the halls of the United Nations.

"She was often more concerned about Saddam's palaces than weapons of mass destruction," explained the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus.

Albright was often derided as "halfbright" and a "witch" by Iraqi diplomats.

Aside from the political posturing, Hamdoon explained that every attempt to open a back channel to the White House was blocked by Albright, first as U.N. ambassador and later as secretary of state.

Hamdoon lamented: "The U.S. insisted that one condition must be met before any talks could be initiated ... the removal of Saddam Hussein. They wanted the one thing we could not give them."

Bill Clinton seemed to have forgotten that on Monday night.

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Presidential Conventions
Saddam Hussein/Iraq