Frimia Novosti: Sahhaf denies Hussein's political asylum seeking to Russia

The Iraqi minister of information Muhammad al-Sahhaf has denied the possibility that former Russian prime minister Yegveni Primakov had discussed during his visit to Baghdad last Sunday with the Iraqi leadership the possibility of giving political asylum for the Iraq President Saddam Hussein.

In a statement to the Russian daily Frimia Novosti issued yesterday, al-Sahhaf stressed that there is no talk about this issue, rather these are dirty tricks and no one from the Iraqi leadership will leave Baghdad.

Al-Sahaf explained that Primakov did not visit Baghdad to convince Iraq to collaborate with the UN inspectors, rather to express solidarity with Iraq, stressing that Iraq is collaborating closely with those inspectors.