NEW YORK -- With a growing U.S.-led army massing on its border, Iraq has invited the CIA to visit Baghdad and escort UN inspectors to sites where Washington believes weapons of mass destruction are hidden.

"We do not even have any objections if the CIA sent somebody with the inspectors to show them the suspected sites," presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi said yesterday in Baghdad, where he continued to insist that Iraq has no nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programs.

White House officials would not comment on the invitation, but it may well prove to have been unnecessary. Members of the Central Intelligence Agency are reportedly in northern Iraq already, scouting out positions, recruiting guides and knitting together a force of Kurds that could help topple President Saddam Hussein's regime.

"The CIA teams have become a familiar sights for Kurds, who see them travelling in convoys with armed local guards," The New York Times reported yesterday.

Indeed, the prospect of Mr. Hussein's ouster grows ever larger as a U.S. buildup looms in the Persian Gulf area.

The Pentagon is expected to dispatch 50,000 more troops to the region in the weeks ahead, a huge influx that will contribute to a force that is expected to reach 100,000 by the end of January.

Yesterday, thousands of U.S. soldiers, some with rifles marked with the slogan "All the way to Baghdad," continued military exercises in the sands of Kuwait, south of the Iraqi border. Tanks practised navigating sand dunes, and nighttime drills were planned.

"This is the biggest manoeuvre exercise since the [1991] gulf war," Major-General Buford Blout said.

In Europe, London's Daily Telegraph reported that Britain would contribute a sea-based force of at least 40,000 troops to an Iraq invasion. And the French Defence Ministry promised that its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, will be ready for operations by the end of January "if necessary," although it also said France is not preparing for invasion.

As many as 1,000 U.S. soldiers are expected to be in Israel this week, setting up Patriot antimissile systems for defence against Iraqi attacks.

The Israeli media have reported that the second half of January will see the country in a period of "high alert" to guard against pre-emptive attacks.

Most experts believe an invasion would take place after Jan. 27, when United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix is expected to present the UN Security Council with his final report on Iraq's weapons capability.

Last week, U.S. President George W. Bush declared that Iraq is in "material breach" of a UN resolution requiring full disclosure of its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

In rare public comments, Mr. Hussein insisted that his regime possesses no banned weapons. "We have told the world we are not producing these kind of weapons," he told a group of visitors, "but it seems that the world is drugged, absent or in a weak position."

Mr. Hussein's son Uday used his state-controlled Babil newspaper to attack the United States as a warmonger. "Everybody knows that that if they had concrete information, they would have put it on television all around the world before giving it to the inspection teams."