Washington ? The Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Republican says he believes Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction at multiple sites and a pre-emptive strike is warranted to stop Saddam Hussein from doing “irreparable damage” to Americans.

Sen. Richard Shelby also warned in an Associated Press interview Friday that “between now and Sept. 11, I’d be very alert” for new terror attacks by an al-Qaida network desperate for a victory.

“Although they’ve been dispersed around the world, they’re beginning to reassemble in areas,” the Alabama senator said. “We have not killed enough of them. We have not captured enough of them.”

Shelby, who met Thursday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the Iraqi situation, said a new American strike aimed at taking out Hussein was inevitable.

It would be foolish to wait while the Iraqi leader builds his arsenal of chemical, biological and perhaps even nuclear weapons, he said.

“I believe they are continuing to manufacture weapons of mass destruction at many sites,” Shelby said. “A lot of them we don’t know about, some of them we are suspicious of. Every month, every week, Saddam Hussein will have more weapons of mass destruction to use against us. Why put it off?”

Asked about the timing, Shelby said the information he had seen led him to believe an attack should be sooner rather than later, but gave no specifics.

“I believe it’s not a question of if we invade Iraq. The question is do we wait until he continues to manufacture more weapons of mass destruction that can do us irreparable damage and our troops, or do we try to pre-empt some of this?” he said.

Shelby also dismissed Iraq’s invitation to bring a United Nations weapons inspector back to the country for talks. It has been nearly four years since inspections were allowed.

“He’s playing the so-called U.N. card right now, trying to delay the inevitable,” Shelby said.

As for Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, Shelby said U.S. officials “have to presume he’s alive until a forensic report showing he’s dead.” But he added, “It’s strange that he has not, to our knowledge, as of today, reappeared recently.”

Shelby said he had no information about any specific al-Qaida strike plans but cautioned Americans to be particularly careful in the lead-up to the Sept. 11 anniversary.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have not observed any spike in terrorist threats the “chatter” in this year’s run-up to Sept. 11, said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

While officials worry al-Qaida might attempt some sort of strike on the Sept. 11 anniversary, they have not traditionally struck on symbolic dates in the past, officials said.

On other matters, Shelby:

Expressed concern about reports al-Qaida members are building relationships with members of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group that Shelby called the “A team” of terrorism while al-Qaida is the “B team.”

“I think there’s probably always been some kind of an association, sometimes tighter, sometimes loose, between these terrorist groups,” Shelby said. “Hezbollah is again much deeper in a lot of areas, better organized and potentially more lethal, if you can imagine that.”

Said he remained uneasy about the Russian-backed project to build a nuclear reactor in Iran. “If this regime stays in power and had nuclear weapons, it would change the whole balance of power in the Persian Gulf, Middle East, big time,” Shelby said. If a pre-emptive military strike became necessary, that job should fall to Israel, he said.

Criticized the level of cooperation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency with Congress’ investigation into intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks, saying it was “a struggle” to get certain information.

Said he wouldn’t be bothered if an outside commission also examined the intelligence failures.