July 13, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1423

KUWAIT, July 12: Kuwait has denied involvement in any plans for a future US attack on its former occupier Iraq and said it would not become a staging area for it, a newspaper reported on Friday.

“Kuwait will not accept any attack on Iraq launched from its territory,” Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Al Sabah told the Al Rai Al Aam daily.

“The United States has not said it would use Kuwaiti territory to launch an attack on Iraq and we have not received any indication about this,” he said, adding that US troops were in the oil-rich Gulf Arab state to defend its sovereignty.

Speculation that the United States would attack Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein has intensified since talks aimed at putting UN arms inspectors back in Iraq broke down last week.

Washington has warplanes and about 10,000 soldiers in Kuwait to deter Baghdad and enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. Saudi Arabia was used as a launching pad for the US-led war, which ended a seven-month Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.—Reuters