First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told the state KUNA news agency that the search for prisoners of war (POWs) is the government's main concern and that it was working to resolve it swiftly.

"We have no information on the whereabouts of the POWs after the fall of the Iraqi regime, but we hope for a speedy solution to end the suffering of the POWs and their families which has lasted for more than 12 years," said Sheikh Sabah.

Some POWs families had expressed their concerns over the past few weeks that the Iraqi regime, while battling US-led coalition forces, might take revenge on any Kuwaiti prisoners it may have still held.

After a four-year boycott, Iraq in January attended a series of meetings sponsored by the International Committe of the Red Cross to discuss the fate of the missing, but there was little progress.

Apart from Kuwaiti nationals, the 605 people missing or taken prisoner include 14 Saudis, five Egyptians, five Iranians, four Syrians, three Lebanese, one Bahraini, one Omani and one Indian, according to Kuwaiti authorities.

Saddam's regime said there had been prisoners, but that it lost track of them during an uprising by Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq following its retreat from Kuwait.

The ousted Baghdad regime had also claimed 1,142 of its nationals had been missing since the 1991 Gulf War.

SPACE.WIRE