Saddam Removal Meeting Held

Leaders of the two main Kurdish parties that control northern Iraq met with U.S. administration officials last week to coordinate efforts to remove Saddam Hussein from power, according to Iraqi dissidents and Arab press.

Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, and Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, also discussed plans for a government that will replace Saddam's regime once the Iraqi leader is ousted, said the Iraqi dissidents.

Officially, the Kurdish groups — the only armed Iraqi opposition groups — have said nothing about the meeting, perhaps out of fear of being accused by other Iraqi factions of working unilaterally with the United States.

On Sunday the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that both Barzani and Talabani met officials from the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA in Germany last week.

Quoting a Kurdish source the paper said both sides met for three days near Berlin and reviewed coordination "to launch a strike against Saddam most likely by the end of this year."

The Iraqi dissidents said Barzani and Talabani also discussed with U.S. officials plans for merging their two governments administrating northern Iraq ahead of a possible move against Saddam.

Asked about the meeting, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin said the United States never comments on intelligence matters. She did not elaborate.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Michaelis confirmed that the two Kurdish leaders were in Germany last week but refused to provide further information.

"The Foreign Ministry was informed that the persons would be staying here. We're providing no information on the nature of possible talks or contact partners," Michaelis said.

But Delshad Miran, a spokesman for the KDP in London, and Fouad Massoum, the British-based PUK's Europe's representative, said their two leaders are in Europe but declined to divulge more.

If confirmed, it would be the first meeting between the two leaders since their parties fought a bloody war over control of the Kurdish area in 1994. The United States, which imposes a no-fly zone on the enclave to protect Kurds against Saddam's incursion, has been mediating between the two parties.

Such a meeting would be a strong signal to Saddam that President Bush's administration is determined in its efforts to remove him from power. The 1995 Iraq Liberation Act, passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by then-President Bill Clinton, made it a matter of law that the United States supports "regime change," or the ouster of Saddam. Mr. Bush has recently reiterated that that is the U.S. goal.

Earlier this month, several Iraqi opposition leaders, including representatives from the two Kurdish groups, met in Washington to iron out plans for a post Saddam government.

The Bush administration reportedly is weighing options for deposing Saddam, among them supporting a local insurgency, fostering a coup by the Iraqi leader's closest lieutenants and an outright U.S.-led invasion.

Earlier this month Ryan Crocker, deputy assistant secretary of state, concluded a four-day visit to the Kurdish region of Iraq, his second this year.

By Salah Nasrawi