Citing defense and intelligence officials, the newspaper said the campaign would include massive leafleting of Iraqi military positions but also might use covert techniques to carry the U.S. message to Iraqi officers.

According to the report, the U.S. officials said Saddam has likely already given conditional authority for deploying chemical and biological weapons to his most loyal commanders in the field because he knows the United States would target his command centers and communications systems at the outset of any military strike.

The sources told the paper the Iraqi leader issued similar orders before the Gulf War. After the war, coalition force interrogators learned that Saddam had decided in advance to give commanders authority to use chemical weapons if Baghdad's communications were interrupted, the newspaper said.

A Pentagon spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

According to the report, U.S. officials believe the Iraqi military decision against deploying chemical or biological weapons in 1991 was because the United States had repeatedly warned that use of such weapons would draw an immediate and overwhelming response, including the possible toppling of Saddam.

The Bush administration has already stated that the removal of Saddam from power would be the goal of any military action against Iraq. As a result, the Pentagon plans to appeal directly to Iraqi officers not to use the weapons, the newspaper quoted the sources as saying.

U.S. military planners are working to determine which Iraqi military units could be encouraged to defect in the event of a U.S. invasion and how to communicate with them, according to the report.

REUTERS

World News Headlines Of The Last 48 Hours

•  Global unions on the financial crisis
•  Pik Botha says Machel crash probe should be re-opened
•   Panic grips world stock markets
•   Forty-two face trial over French 'Angolagate'
•   Africa improving
•   Forty-two face trial over French 'Angolagate'
•  AIDS pioneers and cancer researcher win Nobel prize
•   Forty-two face trial over French 'Angolagate'
•  Zim parties fail to meet
•  I am hurting, says Tutu
•   Dissidents tipped for 60th Peace Prize
•  'Alternative Nobels' for journalist, activists
•  9 killed in Mpuma plane crash
•  'Crime is bad. That's a fact': SA Minister
•  Tutu would welcome new SA party
•  Russian troops start dismantling Georgia posts
•  Zim parties resume Cabinet talks
•  World's heaviest man helps another to lose weight
•  OJ Simpson's luck runs out after 13 years
•  Europe joins fight in financial storm
•  Judges' wigs get the chop
•  Lack of medics plagues developing world
•  Identity of famed Sofia church painter revealed