DAMASCUS, March 12 AFP. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) denied Tuesday a press report that US military personnel recently carried out a reconnaissance mission in northern Iraq ahead of a possible strike.
"It's a pure lie," a PUK official told AFP here, commenting on the report published the same day by the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat.

The PUK, an Iraqi Kurdish opposition group led by Jalal Talabani, "does not favor foreign plots to topple the regime" of President Saddam Hussein, he said when asked of US threats of military action against Baghdad.

"We seek a democratic change in Iraq; we do not want that a dictator (Saddam Hussein) be replaced by another one," he added.

The official said Talabani was expected to arrive in Damascus Tuesday evening for talks with the Syrian leadership, saying there were "no problems" between the PUK and Syria, which also opposes any US strike against Iraq.

Quoting Iraqi opposition sources in Damascus, Al-Hayat said more than 40 US military officers and experts recently spent around 10 days inspecting military positions in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, including two airports, "in the framework of the preparations for military operations".

The Kurdish areas of northern Iraq have been under the control of the PUK and another Iraqi Kurdish opposition movement, the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK) of Masud Barzani, since 1991.

The DPK could not be reached for comment on the Al-Hayat's story.