Iraq denies plot

BAGHDAD, (AFP) - Iraq has denied Kuwaiti allegations that it planned to assassinate former US president George Bush during a visit to Kuwait last month.

The state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA), citing government officials on Friday, dismissed the Kuwaiti allegations as "ridiculous".

"Kuwaiti sheikhs are predisposed to lying and from time to time they do just that," one of the officials said.

Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheikh Ali Salem al-Sabah on Tuesday said a would-be suicide bomber and other "terrorists" from Iraq planned to assassinate Bush during his April 14-15 visit to the emirate.

Agents sent by Iraqi intelligence entered Kuwait in several vehicles, including one with 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of explosives and another with 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of dynamite, Sheikh Ali Salem al-Sabah said.

Bush was the architect of the international coalition that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War.