Police sealed off the white Victorian mansion at Queen's Gate after two groups of six and 18 people broke into the building, which was Baghdad's embassy in London before diplomatic ties were broken off in February 1991.

Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Andy Trotter said all 24 were arrested and taken to a central London police station, in a move that upset other exiles present.

"I don't understand why they were arrested," said Ali Baraka, from Najaf in the south of Iraq, told AFP. "They just went inside the building to express their happiness. They just tore up pictures of Saddam Hussein."

The building was being used as the Iraqi interests section of the Jordanian embassy, before the two Iraqi diplomats who staffed it were told by London to leave after the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began on March 20.

Britain hosts a large Iraqi exile community, and Wednesday Shanta Bearani of the Iraqi Community Association said he was getting calls from people asking him how to return home.

"People want to go back now. They want to go next week. They're saying, 'Help me to do this,' he said.

"These people have been long outside Iraq, 24 to 25 years -- they're the most excited. They want to go back, but the borders are closed."

SPACE.WIRE