"They just suddenly appeared here to apply for political asylum, although we have not announced anything, did not change anything and did not put in place any new provisions," Querner said.

The embassy was accepting all the applications but processing them would depend on decisions to be taken in Vienna.

"We are in discussions with the Austrian authorities on what to do and we will see. But we will still receive them, we will not reject them," he said.

On Sunday alone, the embassy received 1,000 applications, Querner said and as he spoke some 100 Iraqis gathered outside the diplomatic mission busy filling out applications for political asylum in Austria, dreaming of a life of "peace and stability" far away from their embattled country.

"We need to rest. We want to live in peace," said Khulud Saddam, a 21-year-old sales representative who has been living in Jordan for the past three years, helping her family of five with her meager income.

"This is the only chance open to us to seek that kind of life. We have been thinking of leaving for a long time but our financial conditions did not permit it," she said.

Mohammad, an 18-year-old who has lived illegally in Jordan for the past two months, told AFP he was hoping to be admitted to Austria "to escape the war and injustice".

Omm Ali al-Adli, a mother of three who has also lived illegally in Jordan for three years, said she was filing an application for asylum in Austria but admitted that she did not "have much hope of being accepted".

Ali Abu Hassan said he would consider going back to Iraq if the regime of President Saddam Hussein fell, otherwise he wanted to emigrate.

"I know that emigration is hard and that life in one's nation is noble compared to living abroad but what can we do," the young man said.

Some 300,000 Iraqi have been living in Jordan since the 1991 Gulf war.

Querner was dumbfounded as to what triggered the wave of asylum seekers that has seen hundreds of Iraqis knock at his embassy's door since last week.

"We had 1,000 applicants on Sunday, it was the peak. It started four days ago with a much lower number and then increased regularly," he said, adding that Austrian law provides for asylum seekers to apply at embassies.

"The Austrian law of political asylum, which is based on the international convention, says that under circumstances which are not really the case here in Amman, asylum seekers can also apply for asylum in embassies," Querner said.

Last week non-government organisations operating in Vienna charged that Austria had stopped processing applications from Iraqi refugees seeking asylum in the European country.

An Austrian interior ministry spokesman confirmed on April 2 that applications for asylum had been frozen since the US-British coalition attacks on Iraq started March 20, adding however that Iraqi refugees in Austria would not be expelled.

"Austria will not expel Iraqis, and their requests for asylym have been frozen for the duration of the war. But we cannot speculate on the situation that will prevail after the war," Matthias Vogl.

SPACE.WIRE