LONDON, August 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Abu Nidal, the former head of Fatah Revolutionary Council who was found dead in his apartment, was murdered on the orders of Saddam Hussein after refusing to train Al-Qaeda fighters based in Iraq, a U.K. daily newspaper reported

According to reports in the Middle East , Abu Nidal was accused of being in contact with Iraqi exiles, working for the Kuwaiti government, the Telegraph added.

The newspaper added on Sunday, August 25, that despite claims by Iraqi officials that Abu Nidal committed suicide after being implicated in a plot to overthrow Saddam, Western diplomats now believe that he was killed for refusing to reactivate his international network.

According to reports received from Iraqi opposition groups, Abu Nidal had been in Baghdad for months as Saddam’s personal guest, and was being treated for a mild form of skin cancer.

While in Baghdad , Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri Al-Banna, came under pressure from Saddam to help train groups of Al-Qaeda fighters who moved to northern Iraq after fleeing Afghanistan . Saddam also wanted Abu Nidal to carry out attacks against the U.S. forces in the region and its allies, a report by the Telegraph said.

When Abu Nidal refused, Saddam ordered his intelligence chiefs to assassinate him. He was shot dead last weekend when Iraqi security forces burst into his apartment in central Baghdad . The body was taken to the hospital where he had had cancer treatment.

The Iraqi authorities later claimed that Abu Nidal had killed himself when confronted with evidence that he was involved in a plot to overthrow Saddam.

“There is no doubt that Abu Nidal was murdered on Saddam’s orders,” said a U.S. official who has studied the reports. “He paid the price for not co-operating with Saddam’s wishes.”

Last week, American intelligence officials claimed that several high-ranking Al-Qaeda members had moved to northern Iraq where they had linked up with Iraqi intelligence officials.

The newspaper claimed that Abu Nidal worked closely with Saddam during the late 1970s and early 1980s to carry out a number of outrages in the Middle East and Europe , including the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to London in 1982.

The presence of Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq has become a source of great concern in Washington as this claim would allow the U.S. to attack Iraq to carry out its plans in the region.

U.S. Defense Department officials said that a number of Al-Qaeda members was now based in northern Iraq close to the Iranian border at Halabja.

Although Iraqi officials have denied any knowledge of the Al-Qaeda fighters’ presence, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said last week that it was highly unlikely that they could have entered Iraq without Saddam’s knowledge.

“There are Al-Qaeda in a number of locations in Iraq ,” he said. “In a vicious, repressive dictatorship that exercises near total control over its population, it’s very hard to imagine that the government is not aware of what is taking place in the country.”

In addition, the U.K. daily newspaper, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday, that the Iraqi authorities ordered to kill Abu Nidal for working with Iraqi exiles to oust Saddam Hussein and assign his brother Berzan.