Speaking to journalists at the Foreign Press Association, Nabil Mousawi of the Iraq National Congress said that although Saddam Hussein was a ``creation of the international community,'' it was the oppsoition's responsibility to get rid of him.

``It is futile to ask foreign forces to remove the regime in power. That is our responsibility. All we are asking for is for clear political support.''

Commenting on the US-UK's apparent keenness to bomb Iraq he said, ``Punitive action makes the US and UK look good in front of the media... we don't support that kind of action.''

Mousawi was speaking after a two hour meeting with British Foreign Office Minister Derek Fatchett. The meeting, involving 16 different groups, representing regional, religious and political interest, was convened as partof a US-UK bid to ``strengthen'' the Iraqi opposition. Fatchett and his government believe that since ``Saddam Hussein blinked this weekend'' no one would say ``he isn't weakened.''

At the meeting the Iraqi groups, with the Iraqi National Congress and the Iraqi National Accord acting as the main umbrella organisations, presented Fatchett with a three point proposal asking the UK and US to back a new campaign to indict Saddam for war crimes and crimes against humanity; to help to reactivate a redundant radio station, which could be used to relay messages from all opposition groups to the Iraqi people, and to give a clear and unambiguous message of support for groups opposed to Saddam Hussein.

Addressing a separate press conference, Fatchett gave enthusiastic backing to the idea of trying Saddam Hussein for human rights violations. He said a specially constituted court could be set up by the United Nations Security Council on the lines of those trying Bosnian and Rwandan cases. He repeatedly stressed thathis government's priority was not changing governments but to have UN resolutions on Iraq observed. He added that Iraq without Saddam Hussein would be an added bonus, but refused to say how this would be achieved.

Fatchett said his government had told the Iraqi organisations ``to go away and work up some proposals .. we need to see these before we can decide what support we can give.'' He said his government felt that if it could help coordinate the functioning of the opposition groups it will have made a contribution.

Mousawi said the opposition's alternative proposal was well known and that the only way the Iraqi opposition was going to be able to follow it through was with ``clear political support'' from the UK and US. Support from Iraq's Arab neighbours also rested on this condition since they had, thrice before, had to live with the consequences of the international community pulling out of arrangements when ``things got too hot for them'', Mousawi pointed out.

The Iraqi National Congress'ssubstantial proposal, presented to Fatchett, asks for the creation of no-fly zones and no-tank zones in either northern, southern or western Iraq and treatment of these as ``liberated'' areas where a provisional government can be set up. It calls for lifting sanctions in these ``liberated'' areas and the release of Iraq's assets abroad to the provisional government to help it buy arms and other infrastructure necessary for launching their attacks on Saddam Hussein's regime.

Asked whether the UK government had given them any assurances at them meeting, Mousawi said, ``We discussed ways and methods of working together as the Iraqi opposition... to bring an end to the Iraqi regime as soon as possible''. He said that it was too early to expect Fatchett to say anything about the substantial proposal but admitted that no commitments of any kind were given.

Asked how they could be so optimistic, Mousawi said, ``If you are not a natural optimist, you can't work in the Iraqi opposition for two hours.''