IRAQ: Saddam Hussein's special envoy has branded as absurd reports that the Iraqi president was negotiating possible exile in a sympathetic state.
"This is absurdity," according to Mr Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a Revolutionary Command Council member and a cousin of Saddam. "It's a psychological war technique and if you ask an infant in Iraq he wouldn't believe such reports."
Mr Majeed, on a regional tour, met the Syrian President, Mr Bashar al-Assad, and delivered a message from Saddam, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. It gave no further details.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, has also delivered messages from Saddam to the leaders of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco over the past week and has said Saddam would defend Iraq until the last bullet.
Damascus has denied it would take him in if he was forced to flee Iraq. "Syria will not discuss offering refuge to President Saddam Hussein," the Vice President, Mr Abdel-Halim Khaddam, said in Moscow.
Meanwhile, a British pressure group has urged Syrian authorities to arrest Mr al-Majeeda, calling him a "sadistic killer" guilty of genocide.
London-based Indict, which investigates Iraqi war crimes and crimes against humanity, said Mr al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali" because of his involvement with chemical weapons, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. - (Reuters)