IRAQ, heading into what could be a new confrontation, yesterday warned the US and Britain it would fire at planes patrolling over its territory.
The Vice-President, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan, said the Iraqi government did not recognise the northern and southern "no-fly zones" which Western air forces patrol to exclude Iraqi aircraft.
Iraqi air defence would "do what it that can to confront this violation", he said - meaning the armed forces would fire anti-aircraft weapons.
Iraq said yesterday it had fired at Western aircraft attacking a post in the south of the country and warned it would shoot again at any warplane over its territory.
Britain's Defence Ministry said yesterday its Tornado warplanes in the Gulf region would fire back if they were attacked by Iraq.
The ministry said a Tornado flying over southern Iraq had seen anti-aircraft fire some distance away, but the crew did not consider it a threat.
The US and Britain denied Baghdad's account of the first such reported clash since a four-day air blitz by US and British forces, declared finished on December 20th.
Iraqi officials say the raids have not stopped and the army has continued to issue daily communiques about US and Britain "aggression" and violations of Iraqi airspace in the south.
Television and radio have been keeping up crisis-style programming - patriotic songs and calls for "confrontation".
The Iraqi News Agency, INA, carried a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, to all Arab parties and organisations urging them to condemn the strikes and to work for ending the eight-year-old UN sanctions.
Newspapers said Iraq's Foreign Minister, Mr Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, left for Yemen on his way to attend an Arab foreign ministers' meeting due in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the USled military strikes against Iraq and the possibility of holding an Arab summit.
Iraq's most influential newspaper criticised Kuwait, saying the Gulf state would work to destroy any Arab summit called by Yemen to discuss the recent air strikes against Iraq.
"Some Arab parties especially Kuwait will try to blackmail and destroy such a summit by influencing its decisions," said Babel, owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.
Babel said that any summit which did not condemn the "aggression and did not call for ending the unjust embargo on Iraq would be just a formality [or a coquetry]". Kuwait was not represented at a meeting of Arab parliamentarians in Amman yesterday which discussed the US-led attack against Iraq. Babel accused Kuwait of taking part in the attack since it allowed the US and Britain to use its territory as a base for their forces in the Gulf.
The ruling Ba'ath Party newspaper, al-Thawra, lashed out at Saudi rulers, accusing them of taking part in the US-led military campaign against Iraq.