WASHINGTON Ñ The United States does not intend to allow Arab concerns over the Israeli war against the Palestinians to stop any military campaign against Iraq.

U.S. officials said the Bush administration has relayed this message to allies in the Middle East.

The officials said Iraq had attempted to coordinate a regional response to the Palestinian conflict in order to forestall U.S. efforts to win regional support for its Iraq strategy, Middle East Newsline reported.

"I think we have two problems, and we have to work on both of them at the same time," U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said. "We have got the threat from Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. We have got a terrible tragedy taking place between Israel and the Palestinians."

U.S. Officials said the administration believes Iraq is fomenting the Palestinian conflict in an attempt to stop the U.S. campaign to form an alliance against Baghdad.

They cited the tour over the last two weeks of senior Iraqi officials who visited each one of the Arab capitals prior to the arrival of U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney.

Wolfowitz said the Iraq and the Palestinian issue are connected. He said progress on one issue would help ease the other problem. "But we can't wait to deal with one until we have dealt with the other," Wolfowitz said. "We have got to do what we can on both."

The Palestinian Authority, the officials said, is also believed to be helping the Iraqi effort. Officials said the PA can be expected to escalate the war with Israel in an attempt to divert international attention away from the Saddam regime.

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