Abdali (Kuwait-Iraq border): Kuwait prepared on October 19 to receive national archives looted by Iraq during its occupation of the Emirate but reminded Baghdad it was still awaiting the return of some 600 Kuwaitis missing since the 1991 Gulf War.

"Today they (UN officials) will finalise details with the other parties to be ready to start receiving the archives on Sunday (October 20)," Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry under-secretary Khaled al-Jarallah said.

"I don't think they will receive anything today," he said, adding that the documents would be returned through UN officials.

The handover is due to take place at the Abdali border point on the Kuwaiti side of an UN-monitored demilitarised zone along the Iraq-Kuwait frontier.

A convoy of five Iraqi trucks carrying the archives that set out from Baghdad had reached Safwan on October 18 near the border with Kuwait and was waiting for a UN green light to cross to the Kuwaiti side of the frontier, a UN source said.

"But eight to 10 Iraqis are already at one of the offices of the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observers Mission (UNIKOM), which monitors the demilitarised zone, finalising details of the handover," the source said.

Also in the area was Richard Foran, the UN official in charge of the archives issue.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry officials on October 18 said that each truck had a capacity of 20 tons but did not say what their total cargo was. They said that the trucks contained "all of Kuwait's national archives".

Iraq has said that it was returning the documents in line with an agreement reached under UN auspices and with the participation of the Arab League, and also in keeping with pledges Baghdad made at last March's Arab summit in Beirut.

Iraq and Kuwait reached a landmark agreement in Beirut, 11 years after an US-led coalition ended Iraq's seven-month occupation of the emirate, with Baghdad pledging never again to invade its neighbour.