Mohsen Khalil said: "I will continue to carry out my functions as the representative of Iraq, both as a state and as a people."

A statement issued in Sanaa on Sunday by a spokesman for the Yemeni foreign minister announced: "Yemen has informed ambassador Mohsen Khalil, Iraq's permament ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo, of its decision to grant him political asylum."

Khalil applied for asylum on April 9, the day US forces entered central Baghdad, according to the spokesman.

He was Iraq's ambassador to Sanaa from 1992 to 1997.

Khalil was present as his country's representative at the League's Cairo headquarters at a meeting devoted to the situation in Iraq.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa confirmed that Khalil would attend Tuesday's meeting "as the representative of Iraq and not as the representative of any government, because there isn't a government."

He added: "None of the participants had objected to his taking part because Iraq is a member of the Arab League."

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