BAGHDAD, March 2: Iraq dismissed on Sunday a United Arab Emirates call for President Saddam Hussein to step down after a fractious Arab League summit which Baghdad said did only the “minimum” to try to avert a US-led war.

The strongest reaction came from the Babel daily, run by Saddam’s elder son Uday, which accused the UAE of being “a snake” and a US “agent.”

The UAE proposal was the first time an Arab country has called publicly on Saddam to quit, although in the end it was not discussed by Saturday’s summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Babel accused the UAE of “feeding poison into a healthy body ... wanting to put Iraq under the mandate of the United Nations and the Arab League.”

“It is an agent with an Arab face, a devil’s heart and an American tongue” which sought to do whatever the Americans wanted, Babel said in its front-page editorial.

“Like the tooth of a snake trying to enter the ranks ... it wanted to plant a bomb in the summit to break (Arab) ranks,” it said. The UAE initiative called on the Iraqi leadership to give up power and for the country to be placed UN and Arab League administration.

Saddam has said he would rather die than leave. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said from Cairo that the exile call was US-inspired “bilge.”

Saad Qassem Hammudi, a member of Saddam’s ruling Baath party, said the UAE plan “sets a grave precedent, (and is) contrary to the Arab League charter and that of the United Nations which insist on non-interference in the affairs of other states and their choices.”

The final statement “completely rejected” a US-led attack against Iraq and committed the Arab states to not taking part.—AFP