US denies asking Americans to leave Kuwait

The US embassy in Kuwait yesterday denied to have had asked American citizens in Kuwait to leave the country because of the escalation of tension with Iraq.

An official at the embassy said "false news in a local ( Kuwaiti ) daily repeated by the western mass media resulted in large number of telephone calls inquiries to the embassy."

Earlier, an officials at the embassy said that the official in charge of collecting the Americans in case an evacuation process takes place, held a meeting this week which was scheduled earlier and no recommendations were issued.

There are in Kuwait 8,000 civilians but the American evacuation plans cover 20,000 persons including relatives for the Americans and western citizens.

The US carried out a partial evacuation operation from Kuwait during the escalation of tension with Iraq in 1998.