COPENHAGEN, Feb 14 (AFP) - A left-wing Danish party has called on the government to prevent a former Iraqi general under investigation by Danish police for alleged involvement in Kurdish massacres from leaving the country.

Nizar Al-Khazraji gained political asylum in Denmark in 1999, on the grounds he would have risked the death penalty if he had returned to his native country.

Danish deputy Soeren Soendergaard, from the left-wing Unity List, called on the Danish justice minister to guarantee that the former general must remain in the country until police rule out his involvement in war crimes.

The 63-year-old is under investigation for alleged involvement in the massacre of Kurds in the north of Iraq between 1987 and 1989.

According to an article which appeared earlier this week in the newspaper Extra Bladet, Al-Khazraji told the Prague-based Radio Free Iraq that he was prepared to travel to the United States to discuss plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime, as part of the international fight against terrorism.

The Iraqi, who lives southwest of Copenhagen, said he spoke about the plan for a coup d'etat with Iraqi defector ex-general Najib Al-Salhi, who lives in Jordan.

Al-Khazraji has always denied the accusations of killing Kurds. He claims that responsibility for the massacres lie in the hands of Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was charged with stamping out the Kurdish rebellion in the north of Iraq.

Liberal and conservative parties in Denmark said last year that the former general should travel to the United States if the US asks him to go.