"He is in safety", the former leader of the extreme-right Freedom Party told private radio Krone Hit, describing Sabri as a "personal friend".

"He has good connections the world over. We don't need to worry about him," he said, adding Sabri was not in Carinthia, the southern Austrian region of which he is governor.

Haider, who last year made three controversial visits to Iraq and was twice received by Saddam, had offered Sabri asylum in Carinthia earlier this month.

"There is always space in my home for a friend," Haider told News magazine.

He said he would offer Iraq's most senior diplomat, who is close to Saddam, a place to stay in the provincial capital Klagenfurt if he were chased out of Iraq by the United States.

Haider said last year his visits to Iraq had led to substantial Iraqi investments in Carinthia.

At the end of one of his trips he brought back several severely ill Iraqi children to be treated in Klagenfurt hospital. The children had illnesses that could not be cured in Iraq.

SPACE.WIRE