"Undoubtedly with regard to the fact that we are close to the theatre of events and the need to follow up on events in the region, we will attend the conference held next week in London," Kuwaiti Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah was quoted by KUNA as saying.

"On these bases, Kuwait will attend in response to an invitations an observer to follow up on resolutions due to be taken during the meetings, so we may be able to draw up an explicit perspective of the nature of the events taking place in the region," Sheikh Ahmad, who is also acting oil minister, added.

All Iraqi opposition groups, numbered 300 figures, are expected to take part in the conference, due to be held on December 13-15.

The conferees are scheduled to draw up a strategy on how to deal with conditions in Iraq in case the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled.

On Monday, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah held talks here with visiting Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Iraq-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, on the future of Iraq without President Saddam Hussein. However he stressed that the talks were only consultations, not interference in Iraq's affairs.

The patriotic Union is one of the two groups that control the Kurdish autonomous zone of northern Iraq.

Later Tuesday, Talabani told reporters that Kuwait will send an observer delegation to the upcoming Iraqi opposition conference in London.

Last week, chief of the Tehran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq Mohammad Baqer Al-Hakim visited Kuwait and held talks with Sheikh Sabah, who is also deputy prime minister.

Al-Hakim said that the upcoming opposition conference in London aims at unifying the opposition's media address to the Iraqi people, army and government institutions, stressing that all opposition parties in Iraq should forge a unified stance.

Relations between Kuwait and Baghdad have been severed since Iraq invaded the oil-rich Gulf neighbour in 1990.

The United States has been preparing for military action against Iraq if Baghdad does not fully cooperate with the United Nations inspectors who are seeking to verify that Baghdad has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.

The United States has recently intensified its military buildup in Kuwait, its close ally, arousing suspicions that the Gulf state will be a key launch pad for a strike against Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2002)