Saudi Arabia is spearheading an Arab initiative to persuade Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq voluntarily to avert a potentially devastating Middle East war.

A senior Saudi official visited Baghdad in secret last month to assess whether Mr. Hussein would be willing to step down and live in exile, according to Arab diplomatic sources.

With American forces in the Gulf expected to double in the coming weeks, Arab leaders hope to stave off an apparently inevitable conflict with Iraq that could have destabilizing repercussions on their own countries.

But among Arabs and diplomats who know the Iraqi leader, A secret Saudi visit to Iraq last month may signal a plan to coax its leader into exile.there is little optimism that the 11th-hour bid will succeed.

The Saudi official, a senior Army officer attached to the Saudi Interior Ministry, traveled to Baghdad after a mid-December meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Qatar, sources say. The official was scheduled to hold talks with Hussein, but the results of the meeting are unknown.

Last week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Arab leaders have urged Saddam to seek a peaceful resolution, but he would not confirm that an initiative to offer the Iraqi leader exile is under way.

"Communication is continuing on levels announced and unannounced, but all the Arab countries are involved in preventing any military action against Iraq," he said.

The disclosure that a senior Saudi official has visited Baghdad underlines the importance Arab leaders are attaching to resolving the Iraq crisis peacefully.

Last August, Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, visited Baghdad for talks with Hussein that newspaper reports said included an offer of exile for the Iraqi leader in an undisclosed country. Qatari and Iraqi officials denied the reports.

Officials in Washington have welcomed the idea of Hussein leaving power without force being used against him, but Washington denies it is actively engaged in coordinating such a deal with Arab leaders. "I think Secretary Powell and Secretary Rumsfeld have both said that it's an opportunity [Hussein] should take advantage of. But we're not behind those proposals," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday. "But - let's remember reality here - he hasn't indicated any desire to do so and nothing in his past behavior would make you think he would."

The pressure to defuse the crisis was underscored Tuesday as UN experts launched their first aerial inspection within Iraq. Inspectors used helicopters to fly to suspect sites in a hunt for weapons of mass destruction. Teams from the UN have stepped up their weapons searches before reporting to the Security Council by Jan. 27.

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