Saddam moving around Iraq, claims opposition leader

SADDAM HUSSEIN remains in Iraq and is moving around the country, the leader of a US-backed Iraqi opposition group said in an interview broadcast yesterday.

Ahmad Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, told BBC radio that his group was tracking Saddam around Iraq, but with a delay of at least half a day on his latest position.

"We have received information about his movements and the movements of his sons," he told the BBC.

"We cannot locate Saddam so that we have a coincidence of time and position simultaneously to locate him.

"But we are aware of his movements and we are aware of the areas that he has been to, and we learn of this within 12 to 24 hours."

The INC has said that Saddam's son-in-law, Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, and one of the toppled leader's bodyguards turned themselves into the group after returning from neighbouring Syria. The men could have information on the whereabouts of Saddam, a spokesman said.

Mr Chalabi, who left Iraq in 1958 and returned to Baghdad last week with US help, has been touted by some in Washington as a possible leader in a new Iraqi government.

But in the BBC interview, Chalabi repeated claims that he has no political ambitions in Iraq.

His situation is complicated by legal troubles in neighbouring Jordan.

In 1992, he was convicted in absentia by a Jordanian court of embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust after a bank he ran collapsed with about $300m in missing deposits and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Mr Chalabi, who left Jordan before the case went to trial, denies the charges, saying Saddam was behind them.

Mr Chalabi also told the BBC that the United Nations should not play a major role in post-war Iraq, because Iraqis see it as having opposed military action to dislodge Saddam.

"The United Nations can and deserves only a limited role," he said.

"It has little credibility in Iraq and the people of Iraq view it as a de facto ally of Saddam."

However, British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien yesterday said the UN should be involved in helping Iraq move toward a democracy.

"In terms of looking at the way in which the process of democratisation takes place, the elections, the running of those. I hope they will have a voice and an influence."

He said he hoped Syria would not hinder Iraq's transition to democracy.