Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait called for the Iraqi people to be allowed to decide their own future and warned against a breakdown in law and order destabilising the region.

"The government in Baghdad we will deal with is the one chosen by the Iraqi people. We will not anticipate events. We will accept whatever the Iraqi people decide," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday.

He cautioned against lawlessness, looting and lack of security in Iraq, saying if it continued it may lead to disaster, and asked for an end to occupation as soon as possible.

The king of Bahrain, headquarters to the US Fifth Fleet, said it was time for Iraqis to decide their own future, free of economic sanctions.

"We must give the Iraqi people a chance to have their own say, to express themselves and decide their future and we must support them," said King Hamad.

Kuwait, the only Arab country to openly back the US-led war in Iraq, sent its congratulations to Iraqis on their "liberation."

"I congratulate the brotherly people of Iraq on their liberation," Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said in a message.

State Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah said the United Nations should administer a post-war Iraq.

"I believe that the call by Gulf countries is primarily aimed at achieving stability in the region," said Anwar Eshki, head of the Jeddah-based Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies.

"A government selected by Iraqis can better prevent internal trouble ... It will ensure stability. The demographic composition of Iraq is very complicated and only a national government can handle the country," he told AFP.

"A non-Iraqi government will lead to instability, it may even instigate national resistance and promote sectarian conflict. I believe the Gulf call is wise," Eshki added.

Saudi newspapers, which reflect official thinking in Riyadh, Thursday cautiously welcomed the fall of Saddam Hussein but warned the United States and Britain over the law and order situation in Iraq.

"The absence of authority is a very dangerous matter ... The presence of different teams may create chaos ... which may develop into something similar to civil war," Al-Riyadh daily said.

The Saudi Gazette warned that "using force to achieve stability in Iraq would turn the supposed 'forces of liberation' into forces of oppression."

Okaz daily saw a breakdown of law and order developing into sectarian conflict which would "threaten Iraq's unity and lead to its partition."

Turad al-Amri, head of Turad bin Saeed Al-Amri Center for Strategic and Security Studies, said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states were concerned over the possibility of civil war.

"I think Gulf states are fulfilling their moral and legal obligations by calling for an Iraqi government. But they are also afraid that things may deteriorate into a civil war which would destabilise the region," he said.

"They want a true and moderate Iraqi government in Baghdad. They don't want a government with a radical agenda," which may disrupt the status quo in the region, Amri added.

The GCC, which also groups Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, will attempt to contain any future government in Baghdad by accepting Iraq as an observer with the GCC, he said.

SPACE.WIRE