US diplomats in the 62 countries where Iraq had diplomatic missions have been told to again take the request to their host governments, many of which refused when it was first made shortly after the conflict began last month, it said.

"It is time to expel senior representatives of Iraqi missions overseas," spokesman Richard Boucher said. "The leaders of these missions no longer should be allowed to pretend to represent the people of Iraq.

"Therefore, the missions should be closed, the assets should be frozen so that they can't abscond with the assets that rightfully belong to ther Iraqi peoplem," he said.

Boucher allowed that only "a few" of the countries approached had thus far acted on the request, but said Washington was hopeful that more would do so in the coming days.

"As the facts on the ground become increasingly clear that the government of Saddam Hussein does not operate in Baghdad, is no longer qualified to represent the Iraqi people ... we would expect to get additional responses," he said.

Earlier, senior State Department officials told AFP on condition of anonymity that Washington would step up pressure on foreign governments to close Iraqi embassies.

"Before, these governments could argue that Saddam Hussein's government was still there and there was no reason to comply," one official said. "That argument doesn't hold water anymore."

A second official said there were two parts to the request.

The first part seeks the expulsion of members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service masquerading as diplomats, who Washington believes pose a threat to US interests abroad, the official said.

"This is still a concern to us," the official said, noting that only about 20 nations had thus far expelled 100 out of 600 such agents the United States believes to be dangerous.

On March 28, the State Department claimed to have broken up terrorist plots being hatched by such agents in two Middle Eastern countries that officials identified as Jordan and Yemen.

At the time, officials said that in foiling the plots, they had uncovered plans for attacks in about 11 cities around the world, many in the Middle East and the Gulf, Asia and perhaps London.

The second part of the request deals with the closure of Iraqi embassies and consulates, the confiscation of their assets and the expulsion of legitimate senior Iraqi diplomats who no longer represent an existing government, the official said.

"We believe these facilities and these positions should be vacant until they can be filled by representatives of a new, legitimate Iraqi government," the official said.

Despite the new US request, officials at Iraqi embassies in at least 16 countries said the missions were operating normally even though they had not gotten any instructions from Baghdad in days, according to an informal AFP survey.

Embassies in Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Serbia and Thailand were all open for business, the officials said.

Iraqi missions in Finland and Sweden did not answer telephone calls.

SPACE.WIRE