The government daily Iran reported that supporters of the Abadan Oil Industry football team chanted pro-Iraqi slogans at the end of a friendly match in the town.

And the reformist newspaper Yas-e Now published a letter signed by 60 prominent citizens from the province denouncing the show of pro-Saddam feeling.

According to the letter, a major anti-war protest two weeks ago was marred by an Arabic-speaking group "brandishing the Iraqi flag through the streets of Ahwaz ... and chanting that they would sacrfice themselves for Saddam while the majority of demonstrators were shouting that they would sacrifice themselves for Islam".

The letter, signed by members of parliament and councillors from Ahwaz, criticised the "actions of certain sections of the population who have forgotten that the traitor Saddam waged a destructive war against our country".

The Arab minority in Khuzestan is several hundred thousand strong. During the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, the Iraqis laid claim to the province, which it calls Arabistan.

SPACE.WIRE