US warns Iraq after reports of troop buildups near Kurdish areas

 WASHINGTON, June 26 (AFP)  The United States on Tuesday delivered fresh warnings
 to Iraq that it reserved the right to retaliate should it threaten its neighbors following reports of
 Iraqi troop build-ups near Kurdish areas in the north of the country.

 State Department spokesman Richard Boucher would not comment on the validity of the
 reports but said Washington had seen them and was "trying to establish the facts on the
 ground."

 And, he said that if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made a move against the Kurds,
 neighboring countries or US troops or reconsituted its weapons of mass destruction, the United
 States was prepared to react militarily.

 "We do maintain a credible force in the region," Boucher told reporters. "We're prepared to act
 at an appropriate time and place of our choosing."

 His comments followed weekend reports in the British press that Iraqi troops are massing in the
 northern no-fly zone, patrolled by US and British pilots, for a possible incursion into Iraqi
 Kurdistan.

 On Monday in New York, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked about the reports and said
 he would look into them, although he stressed that he had not seen anything "that causes me a
 heightened level of concern."