Iraqi Opposition Conference Urges Saddam's Fall
Iraq's Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian groups met in Turkey
Mert Ozkan, AVANOS, Turkey, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A conference of Iraqi Arab and ethnic minority groups opposed to President Saddam Hussein called on Sunday for an end to his rule.

The groups, which included representatives of Iraq's Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian minorities, released a joint statement at the end of a three-day conference on the future of Iraq in the event the United States ousts Saddam for his alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

"The ethnicities, religions and creeds who make up the population of Iraq believe the dictatorial regime must be brought to an immediate end, and the Iraqi society that has been exposed to destruction needs to be restored," it said.

The United States has said it wants "regime change" in Iraq and has signalled it is willing to use military force to topple Saddam, even though his government has pledged to allow the return of U.N. weapons inspectors.

Iraq's opposition could play a major role in an offensive, so Washington is prepared to provide up to 10,000 people with military training, opposition sources said last week.

Some of the conference delegates, including Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) representative Sadi Ahmed Pire, voiced concern over a military campaign to topple Saddam, saying war was not the only option.

"This meeting was to discuss the future democratic and political structures of a post-Saddam Iraq," Mustafa Ziya of the Turkmen Front told Reuters.

The conference called for the drafting of a new constitution protecting the rights of minorities and for fair distribution of Iraq's natural resources -- including the world's second-largest oil reserves -- among the country's religious and ethnic groups.

The groups also agreed "not to allow one or more groups to dissolve Iraq's territorial integrity and sovereignty."

The meeting, organised by the Ankara-based Iraqi Research Institute, had no official authority but was being watched closely by U.S. and Turkish officials. A larger conference of Iraqi opposition groups, including the Iraqi National Congress (INC), is planned for late October, possibly in Amsterdam.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has jointly administered northern Iraq with the PUK since rising up against Saddam after the 1991 Gulf War, was not represented. The INC groups the main factions opposed to Saddam, including the KDP and the PUK, former Iraqi army officers, businessmen and intellectuals. Iraqi opposition members are based in northern Iraq, where Iraqi Kurds lived in broad autonomy, as well as in a number of other countries.

The KDP and Turkish officials have clashed in recent weeks over Ankara's fears that Iraqi Kurds could create an independent Kurdish enclave in a region bordering southeast Turkey.