CAIRO, Jan 8: An Iraqi ambassador and two Arab countries, Egypt and Mauritania, denied on Wednesday press reports that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was considering exile in order to pre-empt a US-led invasion of his country.

Rumours that Saddam was considering exile, or was under pressure from Arab states to do so after strong hints from the US administration, have amplified since last week.

London’s Daily Telegraph has said the Iraqi strongman could find refuge in Russia, Belarus, Egypt, Libya or Mauritania.

Philippines Foreign Minister Blas Ople said on Wednesday countries in the Middle East have urged Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to voluntarily leave Baghdad to avert an attack.

He told reporters in Manila the information was relayed by ambassadors from Middle Eastern countries he had met earlier this week.

But Iraq’s ambassador to Moscow, Abbas Khalaf, called the US suggestions “completely absurd — nonsense”.

“The Americans launched this canard after failing in their attempts” to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he said.

“These reports are aimed at inserting a (diplomatic) wedge in relations between Russia and Iraq,” Khalaf said.

He separately told the Interfax news agency that “Saddam Hussein enjoys excellent health, is in a determined mood, in perfect control of the situation and believes in our victory”.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeated on Tuesday that the best outcome would be for Saddam to leave the country or turn over a new leaf and surrender his weapons of mass destruction.

German newspaper Tageszeitung, citing informed Russian and US diplomatic sources, reported in its Thursday edition that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration was offering Saddam exile in Russia.

Tageszeitung said Putin was preparing a peace initiative to avoid war after US President George Bush asked him over Christmas to step up his efforts to persuade Saddam to stand down.

Khalaf’s comments confirmed that intensive Baghdad-Moscow consultations are underway.

The Iraqi diplomat told Moscow Echo radio on Tuesday that he did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between top Russian and Iraqi officials aimed at helping negotiate a way out of the conflict.

However, Khalaf refused to specify when or where such a meeting might be held, or whether it might be attended by Putin himself.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said in remarks published on Wednesday that Egypt was not working to convince Saddam to step down.—AFP