Kurdish groups plot anti-Saddam strategy in Washington

WASHINGTON -- Iraqi Kurdish leaders have assured Turkey that they will not involve Ankara in U.S. efforts to oust President Saddam Hussein, officials said.

The Patriotic Union for Kurdistan [PUK] and the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] told both the United States and Turkey that they would not work to break up Iraq and establish a Kurdish state. The KDP is regarded as a rival and leading Kurdish critic of the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, which has been waging a 15-year insurgency against Ankara.

The Kurdish groups met over the weekend in Washington to coordinate strategy in U.S. plans to oust Saddam. The meeting came less than a month after the Clinton administration hosted Iraqi exile groups to draft plans to undermine Saddam's regime.

U.S. officials said the Kurdish groups have expressed willingness to increase coordination. The meetings are being led by State Department official Elizabeth Jones, the KDP's Sami Abdurrahman and the PUK's Kemal Fuad.

Sources at the meetings said Turkish and British diplomats participated in the opening session of the meeting as observers.

The sources said the two rival Kurdish groups have exchanged charges. The KDP accused the PUK of launching attacks against it. They said the next few weeks will determine whether the Kurdish organizations have agreed to cooperate.