Amnesty may be offered to rebels

IRAQ'S prime minister may offer amnesty to insurgents and could extend it to those who killed American troops in an apparent bid to lure Saddam Hussein loyalists from their campaign of violence.

A spokesman for Iyad Allawi went as far as to suggest attacks on US troops over the past year were legitimate acts of resistance - a sign of the new government's desire to distance itself from the 14-month US-led occupation of Iraq.

"If he (a guerrilla) was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force," the spokesman, Georges Sada, said. "We will give them freedom."