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Iraq accuses

defector of

souring ties

with UN

BAGHDAD: Iraq said on Tuesday that the key government figure who fled to Jordan strived to sabotage Baghdad's relations with the U.N. committee disarming it under the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire.

Baghdad newspapers published the text of a recording broadcast on Monday by Iraqi state television which said it belonged to Lieutenant-General Hussein Kamel Hassan, the brains behind Iraq's military industries.

According to the transcript, Hussein Kamel accused U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) chairman Rolf Ekeus of being a liar and untrustworthy.

He urged a meeting of Iraqi leaders under President Saddam Hussein to create a row with Ekeus in order to attract world attention to Iraq's case.

"Sir, from my own point of view, we have to create problems with them (the United Nations and the United States) and stir world public opinion against them...so that it will become clear that Ekeus is not clean and Ekeus means America.

"Sir, we should rely on ourselves. Ekeus is a liar, America is a liar and both are aggressors. We have to stir a problem with them...and Sir I do not think America will fire missiles... against us...let it fire missiles," Hussein Kamel said.

Hussein Kamel, his brother and their wives, both daughters of Saddam, were granted asylum in Amman on August 8. He has since called for Saddam's overthrow.

On Friday, the television broadcast another recording it said belonged to Hussein Kamel in which he was urging Iraqi leaders to invade Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In Monday's broadcast the television announcer called Hussein Kamel a liar and traitor and urged viewers to realise "the extent of the wickedness and conspiracy this traitor was weaving against Iraq and its leadership."

Hussein Kamel also told the Iraqi leaders that he did not believe the oil embargo would be lifted even if Iraq complied fully with demands related to the annihilation of its weapons of mass destruction, according to the transcript.

Iraq is blaming Hussein Kamel for the delays in providing the UNSCOM with full disclosures on its past weapons programmes. He is now being depicted as the man who aligned himself with Washington in a bid to prolong the suffering of Iraqis from the sanctions.

Shortly after his defection to Jordan, Iraq announced it would supply UNSCOM with missing arms data which it said Hussein Kamel had deliberately concealed.

The subsequent disclosures prompted Ekeus to say that they might advance the date of easing the oil embargo on Iraq.

But U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright dampened Iraqi hopes when she said last week that Iraq's revelations made the lifting of sanctins a remote possibility.-Reuter