Top US forces, satellite spies hunt Saddam

WASHINGTON - United States units are stepping up efforts to track Saddam Hussein in advance of a possible war with Iraq.

The effort includes a small team of special operations forces, CIA paramilitary units inside and around Iraq as well satellite imaging and electronic surveillance, USA Today reported last night.

The report, citing US intelligence officials, said airborne electronic surveillance and satellites were being used to track Saddam and to intercept his communications.

Spokesmen for the CIA and the Tampa, Florida-based US Central Command, which oversees military operation in the Gulf region, would not comment.

USA Today said the stepped-up effort to pinpoint Saddam's whereabouts was part of an effort to pressure him into departing or disarming and, if he did not, to pave the way for a US-led invasion to oust him.

Top Bush Administration officials said they would welcome Saddam seeking exile outside Iraq.

Diplomats in the Gulf said Saudi Arabia was drawing up an exile plan for Saddam, perhaps to end his days in Libya.

One scenario being contemplated by planners in Washington and London is of fomenting a rebellion in the eastern city of Basra, which would then be "liberated" by an allied amphibious force.

Bush officials are encouraging the option of removing Saddam from Baghdad.

"To avoid a war, I would recommend that some provision be made so that the senior leadership in that country and their families could be provided haven in some other country," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on ABC television yesterday.

"I think that that would be a fair trade to avoid a war."

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said exile would bring about what the US had sought since the Clinton Administration: a change of leadership in Iraq.

"The challenge before us then would be to see whether or not that new regime would commit itself to eliminating weapons of mass destruction, satisfying the international community that they are interested in the welfare of their people and not in threatening their own people or threatening their neighbours."

Powell is now busy meeting foreign ministers of Security Council members to discuss Iraq.

His first two meetings at the United Nations' headquarters in New York were with the foreign ministers of China and France, two of the many countries who are not convinced the time is right to use force against Iraq.

"Everyone stressed the importance of disarming Iraq," Powell's spokesman, Richard Boucher, said.

Powell told them that after the UN arms inspectors made their report on Monday, the Security Council should decide on what action to take.

Meanwhile the British Government is due to order thousands of marines, soldiers, artillery units and more than 120 tanks to be mobilised this week in preparation for war with Iraq.

The deployment, to be augmented with paratroops from 16 Air Assault Brigade, will form the core of a British taskforce of about 30,000.

The bulk of the British force will be based in Kuwait and Qatar for a land invasion of Iraq alongside US troops and armour.

The marines could be used in an amphibious assault with their US counterparts.

* American and British planes bombed eight unmanned sites that are part of Iraq's military air defence command and control system, US Central Command said yesterday. The strikes came after Iraqi air defence forces fired anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles at coalition planes patrolling the southern no-fly zone, the statement said.

- AGENCIES

Herald feature: Iraq