Kurdistan Observer

An Iraqi Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, said Friday the United States was "determined" to overthrow Iraq's President Saddam Hussein but military action was not imminent.

"There is definitely a US determination to overthrow the Iraqi regime. But I don't think the moment is close," Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told Qatar's satellite television Al-Jazeera.

"The Iraqi people need democracy, a radical change. But we are not in favour of just any change," said Talabani, whose PUK has controlled northern Iraq together with another Kurdish faction in defiance of Baghdad since 1991.

Talabani, who held talks in Saudi Arabia this week, called for "comprehensive democratic change" to be carried out by "nationalist and independent Iraqis".

"We must not replace the current regime with another dictatorial regime. This change requires an understanding between Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, the secular camp and Islamists," cautioned Talabani.

US President George W. Bush has vowed to use all tools at his disposal to oust Saddam, whom he accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction.

The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the other main faction in northern Iraq, said earlier this month that the KDP would not take part in a US offensive "unless it is sure of the alternative".

"Unless we are sure of the alternative, we cannot take part in any operation to change the regime," Massoud Barzani told the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.