The men were caught when leaving Iraq on a bus which was stopped at a US checkpoint in western Iraq, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters at the war headquarters of the US Central Command.

"At a checkpoint in the west, coalition special operations forces stopped a bus with 59 military aged men. In their possesion were letters offering financial rewards for killing American soldiers and 630,000 US dollars in 100 dollar bills," he said.

"The men and all their possessions were taken into coalition control," Brooks added, while declining to say if they were Iraqis or not.

Before the fall of Iraqi capital of Baghdad Wednesday, Iraqi officials repeatedly warned that a number of Arab volunteers would launch suicide attacks on the advancing US troops.

About 5,000 to 6,000 Arab volunteers were believed to have entered Iraq to join the fight against the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein awarded an Iraqi suicide bomber late March with 35,000 dollars for killing four US soldiers near the central city of Najaf on March 22, two days after the start of the war.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2003)