Washington: With US preparing to launch a military offensive against Iraq, prominent experts have warned that America could face the horrible scenario of a pan-Arab call for jihad, collapse of one or more US-allied governments and an inestimable loss of lives and money, if war to oust Saddam Hussein lasted longer than envisaged.

If fighting gets bogged down to two or three months instead of being over in a week or a little longer... brace for the worst-case scenario - "protracted and costly fighting, further mobilisation of radical Islam in the region, and the ensuing collapse of one or more US-allied governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan," retired Army Colonel Robert Killebrew told 'The Washington Post'.

"Our largest concern is that we do not allow time to become our enemy," said one analyst.

At a time when Israel-Palestinian conflict has already turned into a conflagration, the US faces the risk of triggering a 'Middle Eastern war' if Arab public react violently to the proposed US attack on Iraq, sources close the Pentagon said, according to the 'Post'.

Unlike the last time when US persuaded Israel to exercise restraint against Iraqi missile attacks, this time Israel will retaliate if Saddam Hussein, as expected, draws Israel into the war in the hope of turning the US war against Iraq into a Middle East war.

The US has been warned by some analysts that Saddam is not as unpopular as is generally thought, that he has given some freedom, such as access to Internet, to his people and that he has mended fences with the Shiite clergy. Shiites are said to constitute 65 per cent of the Iraqi population.

PTI