Belgrade: The Yugoslav Army on October 6 denied a British newspaper report that Yugoslav radar and experts were helping Iraqi air Defences ahead of anticipated US and British air attacks.

"Our Army officers are not there, and there is no official assistance (to Baghdad) and I personally think there are no unofficial arrangements," Army spokesman Dragan Velickovic, told Beta news agency.

Britain's 'Sunday Times' newspaper reported that Yugoslav experts, still resentful over 1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombings on Yugoslavia, had been assisting Iraqis to organise their air-Defence systems.

"This is obviously not true, and such claims are frivolous," Velickovic said.

Yugoslavia was "determined to return to the international community and to join the (NATO) Partnership for peace programme," the official stressed.

"The state and the (Yugoslav) government have decided to take us into the partnership for peace and all these prove that organising some thing like assistance to Iraq would be completely inappropriate," he added.

Ties between Belgrade and Baghdad strengthened during the regime of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, partly due to Western sanctions, which crippled both countries.

Iraq, whose Military targets have been repeatedly bombed by US and British jets since the 1991 Gulf War, backed Belgrade diplomatically against NATO during the alliances 1999 air war on Yugoslavia.