*Iraqi Kurdish Chief Meets Syria's Vice President 

DAMASCUS, March 13 (AFP) -Iraqi Kurdish chief Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), held talks here Wednesday with Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, members of his delegation said.
Talabani, who arrived in the Syrian capital on Tuesday, has declined to speak to reporters about his visit, which is taking place against the background of threatened US strikes on Iraq.

Both the PUK and Syria have publicly opposed such a strike, warning of regional instability.

Talabani's group and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party have controlled northern Iraq in defiance of Baghdad since the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.

The PUK denied Tuesday a press report that US military personnel had carried out a reconnaissance mission in northern Iraq ahead of a possible strike.

"It's a pure lie," a PUK official told AFP in Damascus, commenting on a report published the same day by the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat.

The PUK "does not favor foreign plots to topple the regime" of President Saddam Hussein, he said. "We seek democratic change in Iraq. We do not want one dictator to be replaced by another one."

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