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}}}>Begin Iraqi exiles ruled out of any attack on Saddam By Roula Khalaf in Beirut and Richard Wolffe in Washington Published: March 24 2002 20:21 | Last Updated: March 25 2002 03:05 A leading exiled Iraqi opposition group that has lobbied the US for a military role in any attempt to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein has recognised it will be limited to a political agenda. This suggests the US may be moving away from any plan to remove the Iraqi president using the "Afghanistan model" in which Northern Alliance opposition forces worked with US forces to unseat the Taliban regime. The Iraqi National Congress, the London-based group that has sought the application of the Afghanistan model to a military attack on Baghdad, now believes it will be "marginalised". The INC's new focus comes as the Bush administration seeks to garner support for action against Iraq. The US is broadening its dialogue with exiled groups to include former members of the Iraqi military establishment and other dissident organisations. The State Department is preparing to hold a conference on Iraq's future that would include the political opposition as well as experts and professionals. An INC leader said: "For 30 years the opposition has been structuring itself to be the instrument of change of regime but here we're talking about the US using overwhelming force to bring down the regime, so we have to change our strategy . . .we will be marginalised in the actual regime change so the role of the opposition will become much more practical." The INC's leadership and plans are supported by Pentagon hawks and many in Congress. But the group's credibility and ability to participate in a military campaign has been questioned by the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. The umbrella opposition group also has acrimonious relations with other dissidents and with Iraq's Arab neighbours. Opposition leaders critical of the INC say Washington's only hope of ousting the Iraqi regime - a decision Washington insists has not been taken - is by encouraging an internal military coup or invading the country. The aim of the conference, to be held in Europe, is to encourage opposition to the regime inside Iraq and reassure Baghdad's neighbours a new government would maintain territorial integrity. US officials are expected next month to meet the "group of four" opposition parties that have joined forces in an informal structure. They are the Iraq National Accord, an organisation made up of former regime insiders, the two main Kurdish parties and SCIRI, the main Shia opposition based in Iran. Only the Kurdish parties are still tied to the INC. In Washington on Sunday, Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, said the administration would draw on Tony Blair, the British prime minister, to lay out the evidence against the Iraqi leader. Separately, Iraq said on Sunday it was ready to receive a US team to probe the fate of a US pilot shot down over Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991. Lt. Commander Michael Scott Speicher was thought to have died. However, Washington reclassified him as "missing in action" in January 2001 following evidence he might have survived. Iraq says he is dead, but on Sunday its foreign ministry said: "To prove our good will in this regard and to refute repeated American allegations against Iraq, we express readiness of concerned Iraqi parties to receive an American team to visit Iraq to probe into the issue." He said the investigation must be accompanied by a US media team under the supervision of the Red Cross. 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