JORDAN has granted asylum to former Iraqi army chief of staff who has joined the campaign to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.
Jordan's Information Minister, Mr Marwan Muasher, said Lieutenant General Nazar Khazraji had asked to live in Ammanand his request was accepted.
Sources in Jordan Gen Khazraji had escaped through the autonomous Kurdish area of north Iraq on Tuesday, was en route to Jordan.
Although Gen Khazraji was not active in the army, his defection is an embarrassment for Mr Saddam.
Diplomats said the general, whose defection was first announced by the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) in London, was to be the star attraction at the opening of an opposition office in Amman.
However, Iraqi opposition sources in Amman disputed the INC description of Gen Khazraji as army chief of staff during the 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait. They said he was removed in August 1990 after being ignored in preparations for the invasion.
The general, who is in his mid 50s, was to have been announced as a member of the Iraqi National Accord, a newly formed opposition group which officially comes under the umbrella of the INC. But the Iraqi opposition is riddled with rivalries which have harmed its effectiveness.
The general's defection followed the killing last month of two of Mr Saddam's sons in law when they returned to Baghdad six months after fleeing to Jordan and calling for the overthrow of his government.
Jordan, which has moved increasingly close to Israel and the US, this month announced it was letting US planes use Jordanian bases for surveillance flights over its neighbour.