BERLIN, April 22 (AFP) - The German government on Monday confirmed that Iraqi Kurdish opposition leaders met in Berlin last week but said it was not aware of reported meetings with US officials here.

"The foreign ministry was informed that these people would spend time here," ministry spokesman Andreas Michaelis said. "We have no information about the type of talks or possible contacts."

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat had reported Sunday that US officials held a secret meeting near Berlin with the leaders of the main Kurdish factions controlling northern Iraq to plan a strike against President Saddam Hussein "by year's end".

The paper, quoting an Iraqi Kurdish source, said the US interlocutors included military officials and representatives of the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) chief Jalal Talabani, whose factions share control of a Western-protected Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, both attended the three-day meeting which ended on Friday, the paper said.

The US strike would be launched from northern Iraq, where "three airports have been upgraded" to serve as springboards for the attack, it said.

A planned meeting of US officials with Barzani and Talabani in a mediation bid in Washington on Thursday was called off after the Berlin talks brought the rival leaders closer, according to Asharq Al-Awsat's source.

One of the topics discussed was the possibility of merging the KDP's and PUK's military resources into a single force in anticipation of the anti-Saddam strike, which would take place "by year's end," the report said.

The United States has threatened to launch a military offensive against Iraq and try to overthrow Saddam unless he allows UN arms inspectors back into the country to verify that Baghdad no longer has weapons of mass destruction.