KUWAIT CITY, Dec 11: Kuwait said on Saturday it has overcome its anger at the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's perceived backing of the 1990 Iraqi invasion, on the eve of a landmark visit by PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas.

"We consider the issue of the position of the Palestinian Authority (leadership) towards the Iraqi invasion as over. We welcome the visit" of Mr Abbas, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad al Sabah told reporters.

"Why talk about an apology?" Sheikh Sabah said in response to a question on whether Kuwait would still demand an apology. "We welcome him and his brothers in the delegation accompanying him."

The state news agency KUNA said Mahmoud Abbas would arrive on Sunday _ the first visit by a high-ranking Palestinian official to Kuwait since the troops of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein attacked the emirate 14 years ago.

Acting Palestinian Authority chairman Rawhi Fattuh, Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath will be among the Palestinian delegation.

Mr Abbas's visit comes just days after a two-day official visit by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the emirate during which he discussed the need to "support the new Palestinian leadership".

Parliament speaker Jassem al Khorafi called for allowing Abbas, who took over the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman's post after the death of Yasser Arafat, to explain his views before making any assessment of the visit.

But the six-member parliamentary Popular Action Bloc said Mr Abbas's trip was unacceptable before he offered an apology to the Kuwaiti people.

The bloc "expresses its total rejection" of Mr Abbas's visit "before the PLO offers a public apology to the Kuwaiti people for the sin it committed against Kuwait", it said in a statement.

Relations between Kuwait and the Palestinians have remained frozen since the emirate accused Mr Arafat of backing Iraq's invasion in 19991.

The emirate demanded a public apology from Mr Arafat as a precondition to normalizing ties with the Palestinian leadership.

An official visit by Mr Abbas to Kuwait in August last year, when he was the Palestinian Authority's prime minister, was called off due to differences over the proposed apology.

Mr Abbas however visited Kuwait last May in his personal capacity to address a political symposium organized by the Kuwaiti parliament. He was received by a number of senior officials.

In May 2001, the PA's official for Jerusalem, Faisal Husseini, was invited to a congress in Kuwait City, becoming the highest-ranking Palestinian official to visit the emirate since the invasion. He died of a heart attack during the visit.-AFP