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London: Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been in secret negotiations with US forces in Iraq for the past nine days for a safe passage out of Iraq, a leading London tabloid claimed on September 21.

The deposed dictator is demanding safe exit to the former Soviet Republic of Belarus, 'The Sunday Mirror' stated in a front-page story.

But another tabloid, 'The Mail', on September 21 claimed that Saddam Hussein had fled Baghdad hidden in a "water-melon barge" only days after US forces marched into the city.

While the world held its breath for his capture or proof of his death, it seems Hussein was very much alive in an under-ground bunker, only a few yards from a mosque where the Allies had been told he was hiding, the report said.

"Saddam sneaked out of his bunker again, and boarded a high-powered boat disguised as a watermelon barge. He hid away in a secret compartment behind a cargo of fruit while he was taken up the River Tigris to his home-town stronghold of Tikrit, which had yet to fall to American forces," the report said.

'The Sunday Mirror' in its report said, in exchange for his safe passage, the Iraqi dictator has vowed to provide information on weapons of mass destruction and disclose bank accounts where he siphoned off tens of millions of Dollars in plundered cash, the report claimed.

US President George W Bush is being kept abreast of the "extraordinary talks" by his National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

She is co-ordinating negotiations in Baghdad which are led by Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq, 'The Sunday Mirror' report claimed.

The United States, it said, has vowed never to negotiate with Saddam and want to take him dead or alive, but the White House hopes the clandestine talks will allow them to pinpoint the tyrant's exact location.

An English-speaking Iraqi representative of Saddam Hussein, who walked into the US Headquarters at Tikrit - his home-town - for talks with senior officers, is quoted by the tabloid as saying that Saddam had decided to strike a deal "because he is desperate, trapped and finding fewer and fewer people willing to give him shelter".

"He resorts to arriving with a posse of armed men, and forcing them to give him hospitality. When he leaves the frightened 'hosts' are told they'll be killed if they say a word," he said.

According to the report, Saddam's representative, who walked into the headquarters on September 12, led a group of US troops to a nearby suburb where one of Saddam's loyal security chief was waiting. The US officers were handed a hand-written note, purportedly from Saddam himself.

PTI