RIYADH, April 1: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday he had not called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to quit, but only advised him to make a “sacrifice” if that was the only way of ending the ongoing conflict.

“What I said was that if the only thing that can resolve the situation in Iraq is a sacrifice from President Saddam Hussein, and since he is asking all Iraqis to sacrifice their lives for their country, the least expected of him is to do the same,” Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters.

If the only thing that can stop the US-British campaign launched on March 20 is a “sacrifice” from the Iraqi leader, then “he should listen to his own advice,” Prince Saud said, adding it was not too late to do so.

The Saudi foreign minister had all but urged Saddam to step down in an interview with ABC News late on Monday.

Since Saddam has “asked his people to sacrifice for the country ... he should be the first to sacrifice for his country,” Prince Saud said.

“If his staying in power (is) the only thing that brings problems to his country, we expect that he would respond to a sacrifice for his country, as he requires any citizen there to.”

US President George W. Bush, backed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has launched the war on Iraq with the stated objective of toppling Saddam and ridding the country of alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The Saudi chief diplomat also denied that the United States had been using an advanced command and control system at Prince Sultan Air Base in Al-Kharj, 80 kilometers south of Riyadh, to direct the war against Iraq.

“Targeting Iraq is not done from Prince Sultan Air Base. The only duty given to the US troops (there) is to enforce the no-fly zone over (southern) Iraq,” he said.

Two days after the war broke out, Turkey announced the end of US-British operations to enforce a similar exclusion zone over northern Iraq from a Turkish air base.

The Saudi minister also denied the kingdom had granted permission for the United States to fire cruise missiles over its airspace, saying “there was no permission asked and none given.”

The New York Times on Saturday published interviews with a number of US officers manning the command and control system at the Prince Sultan base in which they said they were directing the war on Iraq.—AFP