Ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been in secret negotiations with US forces in Iraq for the past nine days, a British tabloid newspaper claimed on Sunday.
According to the Sunday Mirror report, Saddam is demanding safe passage to the former Soviet republic of Belarus in exchange for information on weapons of mass destruction and his bank accounts.
US President George W Bush is being kept up to date on the talks by his national security adviser Condoleeza Rice who is coordinating negotiations led by US general Ricardo Sanchez, the Sunday Mirror said.
Sanchez is the commander of US forces in Iraq.
”A representative of Saddam in Western-style civilian clothes came to coalition people at Tikrit at sunset on September 12. He led them to a house where the security official was waiting,” said a senior Iraqi quoted in the Sunday Mirror.
”The discussions are now going on under the direct authority of General Sanchez,” the source said, according to the newspaper.
The source, a man, maintained that Saddam had decided to seek a deal ”because he is desperate, trapped and finding fewer and fewer people willing to give him shelter,” the tabloid said. – Sapa-AFP