A rift-plagued conference of six Iraqi opposition groups to plan a post Saddam Hussein era will now be held in Britain next month, the organisers told AFP."The conference will now take place in December in Britain," Nabil Mussawi, a member of the preparatory committee which has had to call off the meeting twice already, said Tuesday.

"There is an agreement between the opposition factions to transfer the conference but we are still awaiting for the British government to grant visas to participants who will number at least 350," said Mussawi, who is a spokesman for Ahmed Shalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC).

Mussawi said he expected the conference to open on December 10 while INC executive director Faisal Karagholi told AFP "mid-December, probably the 13th to the 15th of the month."

"The preparatory committee will meet Tuesday night to iron out details for holding the conference," Karagholi said.

The meeting had been rescheduled for November 22-25 in Belgium after plans to stage it in Europe in October fell apart.

A diplomatic source in Brussels said Monday that Belgium had blocked the conference, saying it was inappropriate under current circumstances.

"The timing was not good while there is a UN process aiming to disarm Iraq without seeking a regime change in particular," said the diplomat.

According to independent Iraqi sources, the postponements have been due to divisions among exiled Iraqi opposition groups trying to present a united platform for their country's future.

Shalabi, who aims to be a figurehead for all opposition groups and backs the idea of forming an interim government to replace Saddam, had opposed holding the meeting in Brussels, one source said, adding that the US State Department wants the INC to become a real political party.

"There will not be any provisional government or parliament in exile set up" during the conference, Karagholi said. "There is a consensus on these two points."

The Iraqi opposition may however "create a simple consultative committee," he said, without providing further details.

Washington has put forward the idea of a such a committee in a recent document given to the opposition movements. But it does not mention a federal system for a future Iraq or any role for the opposition in ousting the regime, the Al-Hayat newspaper reported Tuesday.

PHOTO CAPTION

Members of the Iraqi National congress