Officials said no decision has been made on how to deal with Iraq but clearly indicated Washington wants Saddam out of power.

"We're in consultation with our friends and allies, (and) we have felt, the president felt that it is extremely important to make clear that the status quo is not acceptable with this regime," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.

"That's why the United States, irrespective of what the United Nations might do with inspectors or sanctions, continues to believe that regime change is the best solution, to get a more responsible regime in there that will be more interested in the needs of the Iraqi people than threatening neighbors," Secretary of State Colin Powell, told NBC.

Their comments came as William Arkin, adjunct professor at the US Air Force School of Advanced Air Power Studies reported in the Los Angeles Times daily that the US Central Command's draft plan for a massive ground assault on Iraq has sparked criticism within the US military.

The plan by Central Command chief General Tommy Franks calls for a simultaneous ground and air attack on southern Iraq by some 150,000 troops supported by planes from five aircraft carriers in the hopes of sparking a local uprising, Arkin said.

He said the plan -- which has not officially been approved the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- has been criticized as unworkable and too risky.

"Three of the four subordinate commands within (Central Command) -- the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines -- took the unprecedented step of expressing alarm at a (command) meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany last month," Arkin wrote in a signed column.

The New York Times reported last week that the attack was to be launched early next year with about 250,000 US troops.

The New York daily said the plans were drafted after the administration of President George W. Bush concluded a coup would be unlikely to succeed and local forces were insufficient for a proxy battle.

Rice said President George W. Bush has not decided what to do with Iraq, repeating a previous denial by Powell, and a Central Command spokesman refused comment.

"We're not going to comment on any sort of operation like that even if it does exist," Central Command spokesman Commander Dan Keesee said.

Iraq figures prominently along with Iran and North Korea in Bush's "axis of evil" for its alleged support for terrorism and attempts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Washington has threatened to attack regardless of what the United Nations does to convince Saddam to accept a return of arms inspections mandated by the Security Council.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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