The 65-members of the Follow up and Coordination Committee (FCC), formed at the end of an all Iraqi opposition that was held in London between 14 to 17 December had been due to assemble in the city of Erbil, in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq in mid January to continue preparations for a provisory government to take over after the fall of the Iraqi dictator in case the United States attacks Iraq.

But problems in obtaining visas from neighbouring Iran, Turkey and Syria for the delegates and worries about security for the meeting, had forced the timetable back until the end of the month.

Speaking at the 'Iraq's Stability, the Role of Kurds: Past, Present and Future" conference, Zibari said by taking the necessary security measures, the security concerns for which this conference had been delayed have now been "dealt with".

"There shouldn't be any other problems for holding this conference", he told IRNA, but without giving any further details in this regard.

A senior official for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the other main Iraqi Kurd group also confirmed that the most likely date and venue for the meeting was now February 15 near the town of Erbil.

"We are working with the KDP to sort the problem out so that the meeting can be held in Iraqi Kurdistan", Mr. Ahmad Bamerani, the PUK representative for Europe told Iran Press Service.

The US Administration also told the group that the planned opposition conference in Kurdish-held northern Iraq in February could provoke retaliation against the Kurds by Mr. Hoseyn or even cause war, according to The New York Times.

Some Iraqi opposition sources have said that Washington has serious reservations about the ability of the Iraqi exile groups to fill the power vacuum in a post-Saddam Iraq.

Several of these officials, including Mr. Ahmad Chalabi and Ayatollah Baqer Hakim, the leader of the SAIRI have met in Tehran in recent days to try to coordinate the Erbil meeting.

Other prominent opposition figures who travelled to Tehran were General Wafiq Sumarahi, the former chief of Iraqi military intelligence who defected in 1994; Mr. Mudhar Shawkat, leader of the Iraqi National Movement, an organisation of mainly Sunni Arabs that works closely with the State Department and representatives from the two Kurdish opposition parties.

Iran is one of the principal entry routes into northern Iraq where a no-fly zone patrolled by U.S. and British fighters has given Iraqi Kurds virtual autonomy from Baghdad since 1991.

"I would say that this meeting with Dr. Chalabi and a few other members of the liberal camp of the opposition groups was one of the most successful meetings that Ayatollah Hakim has had", Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Hakim, a close aide to the SCIRI leader told Reuters.

He said the meeting reflected the unity within the Iraqi opposition camp and had been useful to analyse the strategies likely to be employed by Saddam to crush any uprising by Iraqis if a U.S. led attack is launched.

The SAIRI has abandoned his goal of creating an Iranian-style Islamic Republic in Iraq and has instead moved closer to other Iraqi groups, allowing his followers to cooperate with other Shi’ite groups and the Sunnis, and even with the United States.

"We are struggling to determine whether or not an Iraqi leadership that can claim legitimacy can emerge", Kenan Makiya, an author and a Brandeis University professor who is part of the delegation, told New York Times.

Mr. Makiya, who was one of three Iraqi opposition leaders to meet President Bush at the White House this month, added: "The Iranians are actually offering to protect us so we can hold our meetings in northern Iraq. Would you believe that?"

According to Mr. Makiya, the delegates did not met with any one in either the office of the President or the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

"Neither of those offices seems deeply involved in the plan", he told The New York Times, adding "We've had very important meetings and increased support shown here for us".

Mr. Makiya did not named any of the Iranian officials the delegation met, but added, "We're not involved with the Khatami group. They have absolutely no say over Iraqi affairs".

Iran's official position is that it opposes American military intervention in Iraq and that it must be left to the Iraqi people to decide their fate. But at the same time, Tehran has given protection and material support to Ayatollah Hakim as well as to the Kurdish parties to help Washington to overthrow President Hoseyn.

He added, however, that weapons inspectors must be given time to disarm Iraq, and charged that the real American goal "is the domination of the region and Iraqi oil."

"Iraq has a 1,300 kilometre common border with us", Mr. Rowhani said. "An outbreak of a new war only one year after a war in our other neighbouring country, Afghanistan, is unbearable" and rejected as "unjustifiable" any new military action, thus joining France and Germany in opposing any unilateral attack on Baghdad without mandate from the United Nations Security Council.

An American official said that Iran has become increasingly helpful to the opposition and that the administration was generally pleased that Iran would provide such support, calling it a "positive trend".

However, he cautioned that there continue to be deep divisions within the Iranian government over whether to support the overthrow of Saddam Hoseyn — divisions that cut across both the religious conservative and reformer camps --, as confirmed by the exclusion of Mr. Khatami – who is in India on an official visit -- and the Foreign Ministry from planning with the Iraqi opposition . ENDS IRAQI OPPOSITION 27103