Baghdad repeated that UN inspectors due to start work this week in Iraq will find no prohibited arms, as Washington signalled it might accept President Saddam Hussein staying in power if he gives up his alleged weapons of mass destruction. But Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri charged that Washington is seeking to use as a pretext for military action a declaration Baghdad must make soon concerning its weapons programmes.

A low-level air war carried on Sunday as Iraqi anti-aircraft fire chased US and British warplanes back to their bases in Kuwait, an Iraqi military official said.

There have been repeated skirmishes by US and British warplanes patrolling no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq and the Iraqi military in the countdown to the new arms inspections.

A UN spokesman said in the Iraqi capital meanwhile that the weapons inspectors will establish a hotline with Iraqi authorities to better manage any crises that arise after resumption of inspections due on Wednesday.

ANNAN PHONES MUBARAK ON IRAQ

And UN Secretary General Kofi Annan phoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak concerning the crisis in Iraq, the official MENA news agency reported.

The two reviewed the situation in Iraq in the context of this week's November 27 kick-off of UN arms inspections for the first time in four years, MENA said, without giving further details.

The inspectors are to search for evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and come equipped with a tough new UN Security Council mandate, Resolution 1441, passed on November 8 that grants them the right to conduct no-holds barred inspections.

The team includes 12 inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and six others from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

SADDAM CAN STAY IN POWER IF HE COMES CLEAN: U.S.

The Bush administration earlier gave its clearest indication to date it might consent to Saddam staying in power if he agreed to give up suspected weapons of mass destruction.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CNN Saturday that Iraq's verifiable disarmament -- without Saddam leaving office -- could be a solution to the current standoff.

"It might be that (Saddam) would change his mind and open his country up and say, 'Well, I'd rather stay in power; then I'm willing to give up my weapons of mass destruction,'" Rumsfeld said.

And a senior US administration official told media that the United States had not gone too far down the path to war for alternatives to full-blown military action to take place.

SABOTAGE ALTERNATIVE TO BOMBING IRAQ

The United States is contacting "people who can do World War II-style resistance, breaking up the infrastructure of communications and command," Time magazine said, in the issue that goes on sale Monday.

Sabotage of the Saddam regime may provide an alternative to bombing Iraq or marching into Baghdad, and "could help promote the longer-term destabilization of Saddam's government," without necessarily committing US forces, a State Department official told the weekly.

Washington is looking to recruit Iraqi Kurds, as well as help from Iran.

Along with stepped-up US-British air operations over Iraqi no-fly zones, top ally in the Middle East Israel is already performing surveillance over Iraq's western desert in search of SCUD missile hiding places, the official said.

SYRIAN WARNING

Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara, meanwhile, warned the United States, in an interview with an Egyptian weekly, not to bypass the Security Council when arms inspectors submit their findings on Iraq.

Shara, whose country is the only Arab member of the council and voted for 1441, also said Syria stood by Iraq "because we know that we will be targeted directly or indirectly, tomorrow or at a later stage."

In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Sabri said clauses relating to the arms declaration that Baghdad is required to produce by December 8 aim at "distorting the position of Iraq and using the (declaration) to launch an aggression against Iraq."

GERMANY BACKTRACKS

Meanwhile, Germany, which has been among the most vocal Western opponents of a US-led war on Iraq, hinted at a possible backtrack on its positions.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who was re-elected this fall partially for his opposition to a war on Iraq, has indicated he would not prevent Washington from using German airspace or US military bases in the country in case of such a conflict.

At last week's NATO summit in Prague, Schroeder said a US request for possible assistance in the event of an Iraq war would be "carefully examined."

Amid the speculation, German Defense Minister Peter Struck on Sunday denied a report that the United States had asked Berlin to make anti-aircraft missiles available for a war in Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

United Nations personnel unload equipment from a U.N. plane at Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2002. The equipment is to be used by U.N. weapon inspectors scheduled to deploy in Iraq Nov. 27 in order to implement U.N. resolution 1441.(AP Photo/Hussein Mall