"This is categorically untrue," he said during a meeting at the senate, admitting that some US military experts are in Jordan to operate Patriot missiles system which is "only for defensive purposes."

Ragheb also firmly denied the rumors that Jordan is hosting some Israeli troops on its territories, promising that Amman will never allow such things to happen.

Ragheb also denounced the accusation that Jordan hampered food and medicine shipments to Iraq as "not accurate."

He partly attributed the decline of bilateral trade between Jordan and Iraq during wartime to the absence of UN representatives, who were responsible for checking the goods under the UN oil-for-food program.

The Iraqi diplomats who were expelled by Jordan a week before had been involved in intelligence activities, Ragheb said.

Regarding the Iraqi government's deposits in Jordanian banks, he said the Central Bank of Jordan has taken necessary precautionary measures to preserve the money, and no one would be able to use it without notifying the Iraqi government, he said.

But the money owned by Iraqi nationals is not restricted by the precautionary measures and any Iraqi depositor is free to withdraw any sum of money whenever he wants, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2003)