American efforts to topple Iraqi president

The British daily " Sunday Times" has disclosed American efforts to topple the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein via the Iraqi leadership existed abroad.

The BBC on Sunday quoted the paper as saying that American officials are studying with these Iraqi leaderships who can succeed the Iraqi President.

The paper also quoted American diplomatic sources as saying that the war in Afghanistan had convinced senior American officials that any strategy to any new attack on Iraq should include finding an alternative for the current Iraqi leadership.

The paper said that several former Iraqi army officers in the " Republic's guards" who used to follow directly to Saddam Hussein had recently visited Washington and held meetings with high ranking American officials.