Anti-Saddam Kurd guerrillas close in on Arbil 06:58 Oct 16, 1996

KOY SANJAK, Iraq, Oct 16 (Reuter) - Kurd militiamen opposed to Baghdad on Wednesday pushed north towards the city of Arbil, northern Iraq's administrative centre and symbol of Kurdish dreams of autonomy.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) senior member Kosrat Rassoul said his fighters aimed at cutting a road toward the city of around 800,000 people. It was unclear whether they would then press on to take Arbil by force.

``We now have enough fighters in the area to cut the road and repel them,'' Rassoul told Reuters in the town of Koy Sanjak.

Arbil was the seat of a Kurdish regional government that collapsed last year in inter-faction squabblinq. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) guerrillas backed by Iraqi troops and tanks took the city from Jalal Talabani's PUK in August.

Washington launched missiles at targets in southern Iraq in response to the Iraqi intervention.

Rassoul said on Monday his men would storm the city but Talabani has said he would stop short of recapturing Arbil, citing what he says are Iraqi government tanks surrounding it.

``Iraqi forces are protecting Arbil. If we attack we will cause an alliance between KDP and Iraqi forces,'' Talabani told Turkish current affairs programme 32nd Day on Tuesday night.

He said he would be keeping an eye on talks between his rival group and U.S. officials in Washington set for Wednesday.

``The USA have cut in to the situation. We are waiting for the result of this (American initiative),'' he said.

A KDP delegation was to complain to U.S. officials about what they say is Iranian military backing for Talabani. Tehran denies charges of sending men and equipment to north Iraq.

On Wednesday Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati was quoted as saying that Iran was ready to mediate an end to the fighting between Iraq's Kurdish factions.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA said Velayati, speaking in the Kazakhstan capital of Almaty on Tuesday night, invited the Kurdish groups ``to settle their disputes at the negotiating table.''

The United States has also called on the Kurds to return to negotiations.

Washington, which spearheads an allied air force that patrols northern Iraq, fears losing more of its influence in the mountainous region to President Saddam Hussein or Tehran.

The U.S. scrapped aid, military and intelligence programmes on the ground in north Iraq after Barzani's group took Arbil.

There was no sign of Iraqi or Iranian forces near Koy Sanjak on Tuesday.

Minor clashes broke out on Tuesday near the town of Degala where the KDP pushed Talabani's forces back 10 km (six miles) in a bid to take Koy Sanjak.

The PUK's Rassoul told Reuters on Tuesday night: ``Now our target is Arbil.'' Around 3,000 of his fighters were gathered in Koy Sanjak at the time for a push north.

U.S., British and French planes have been patrolling the skies of northern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991 to shield Iraq's Kurds from Baghdad. The air force has played no part in the inter-Kurdish feud.

Turkey confused over Ciller comments on Iran 14:26 Oct 16, 1996

ANKARA, Oct 16 (Reuter) - Turkey on Wednesday could not clear up confusion over a comment by Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller who said she had reports of Iranian troops fighting alongside an Iraqi Kurdish group in northern Iraq.

Foreign ministry spokesman Omer Akbel declined to say where Ciller's information had come from, other than the media and a rival Iraqi Kurdish group.

``The minister's statement is true,'' he told a news briefing. ``This information has first of all appeared in the press,'' he said.

Ciller said on Tuesday she had information that Tehran was giving military support to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) militia against the pro-Baghdad Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) group.

``(The information) is coming as reports. I do not want to say they are true or not. But we have information on the subject,'' Akbel said. He cited statements by the KDP as another source of Ciller's information.

The Iranian news agency IRNA said on Wednesday an Iranian foreign ministry source regretted Ciller's remarks and reiterated Tehran's denial it backed the PUK in its drive against the Baghdad-backed KDP.

``Iran has always been in the belief that backing any group in northern Iraq would only heighten tension there and that regional countries...should help ease tension in the region,'' IRNA quoted the source as saying.

Turkey's Akbel said Iran had told Turkey it had not sent men, weapons and ammunition to northern Iraq to back the PUK, as alleged by the KDP.

The two Kurdish groups are fighting in the mountains across the border from Turkey's own mainly-Kurdish region over territory and a makeshift oil trade.