Al-Sahaf accuses Washington of preparing land attack on Iraq

Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf said the US administration is preparing to launch a "land attack" against Iraq.

In a statement to the London-based al-Hayat daily published on Thursday, al-Sahaf stated that the US intends to escalate its aggression against Iraq within the two no-fly zones to prepare for launching a major land attack.

Al-Sahaf said that Baghdad received sure and critical information on partitioning Iraq. He said his country will unveil the details of this matter.

In Bangkok, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry Shelton, denied on Thursday news of US planes striking Iraqi targets outside the no-fly zone areas in northern and southern Iraq. He also denied the intention of the US to do so in the framework of implementing the embargo.

Shelton, who was talking at a press conference held in Bangkok, repeated his denial of assertions by Iraq on Wednesday that US planes attacked Iraqi civilian targets near the Iraqi on Wednesday, killing one Iraqi citizen and wounding others. Shelton described these reports as groundless.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Russian Finishikhinka trade company denied accusations raised by Western and British dailies that it had sold weapons and relevant equipment to Iraq.

AFP said that the company's director general, Pavil Zabdonov, announced on Wednesday that his company does not have any trade or any sort of relations with Iraq.

Earlier, Russia denied having signed any secret agreements with worth US $163 million in order to modernize Iraq's MiG jet fighters or to maintain the anti-aircraft batteries the Iraqi Army owns.