Senior officials in US President George W Bush's administration are supporting the idea of an exile "haven" for senior Iraqi leaders.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he would be "delighted" if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein went into exile, or was stripped of the protection of Iraqis who surround him under a proposal to grant amnesty to top Iraqi officials if they help dislodge him.
Asked on ABC's This Weekwhether the United States would be willing to give Saddam immunity from war crimes prosecution, he said "To avoid a war, I would . . . recommend that some provision be made so that the senior leadership in that country and their families could be provided haven in some other country".
Secretary of State Colin Powell backed proposals to grant amnesty to senior Iraqi leaders as a way to step up pressure on Saddam. "I would encourage Saddam Hussein, if he is getting any messages of this kind, to listen," he said on CBS television's Face the Nation.
A Gulf diplomat in Washington said last week that Saudi Arabia had proposed an international amnesty offer to all but the most prominent Iraqis.
But a special envoy from Saddam has dismissed as "a psychological war technique" reports that Saddam was negotiating possible exile to avert war.
University of Maryland Middle East expert Mr Shibley Telhami said it was very unlikely Saddam would agree to exile. But he told Reuters the United States may be trying to spur defections among Saddam's military leaders.