DAVOS, January 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Addressing the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Iraqi opposition groups unanimously rejected a U.S.-led occupation of their homeland should Iraqi President Saddam Hussein be toppled.

They ,however, would accept foreign intervention in creating a new order in the country, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Tuesday, January 28.

"An occupation, this would not be acceptable. But at the same time, let's be realistic. If U.S. forces and other allied forces take military action to remove this regime, definitely they will have a major influence on shaping the country's future," Hoshyar Zebari, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told the WEF.  

Over the recent months, Iraqi diverse cultural and religious groups held a number of conferences to act in unison vis-à-vis the post-Saddam Iraq.

They expect that the U.S.-led forces' presence in Iraq would serve as an approximately two-year transitional period to restore order and stave off any selfish desires from neighboring countries, then they can take over.

"A U.S. presence would be necessary for some time in Iraq to deter any regional intervention in the country ... (and) maintain law and order and peace and stability until the Iraqi forces would be able to take over," Zebari said.

Trying to dispel fears of disunion and disintegration in the days to come, Iraqi opposition groups told the world forum that the only solution to steer clear of any conflict of interests or disputes is to act in concert for a democratic Iraq.

"Iraqis of different backgrounds have no choice but to work together ... to create a democratic government," said Barham Salih, the so-called prime minister of the regional government in Kurdistan.

Iraqi opposition groups also said they are keen on avoiding bloodshed in their country, hoping Saddam would go peacefully into exile to head off a U.S.-led military offensive even if without facing trial for alleged atrocities committed in the country if that would prevent war.

"That's why we call, especially for Europeans, to put their weight behind the Americans into pushing Saddam ... to leave the country and ... give the Iraqi people the right to choose their leaders," said Ghassan Atiyyah, editor in chief of the British-based Iraqi File.

"All of us would like to spare Iraq further bloodshed, and in this sense we will save Iraq, a war and everyone," he added.

Given that Iraq has the world's second largest oil reserves, Iraqi opposition groups told the economic forum that oil was the bedrock on which the future of Iraq would be based.

"Everything in Iraq depends on oil today. No oil, no life," said Adil Abdul Mahdi, president of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

"We estimate we need three years and no less than two to three billion (dollars) to bring back the 3.5 million barrels a day production capacity that was there before the invasion of Kuwait.

"We also estimate that Iraq can increase production to around five to six million barrels a day by around 2010 with investment of around 30 to 40 billion dollars," Mahdi added.

Zebari was in Davos with representatives of other Iraqi opposition groups who agreed in December to try and form a united front that could play a key role in running the country if and when Saddam was ousted.

Driven by lingering fears of a Turkish intervention in the oil-rich northern Iraq, a senior Iraqi Kurdish official said that autonomy for the Iraqi Kurds would help stabilize the region in the post-Saddam era, AFP said.

"As the people of Iraq we -- Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Assyrians -- see it as our most natural right to determine what kind of regime will be established in Iraq," Barham Salih of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said in Rome.

"There must be no intervention aimed at limiting our right to freely determine what kind of a system we want.

"A democratic and federal system will be the best thing for the Iraqi people. In this way, confidence, peace and stability will also prevail in Iraq's relations with Turkey," he added.

The PUK and its rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have run northern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, under the protection of a U.S. and British-enforced no-fly zone.

Fear of Kurdish independence is a major factor behind Turkey's opposition to a possible U.S.-led war on Iraq.

Turkey, however, has signaled that it would not take advantage of a U.S.-led war to move troops into Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq, as long as the Kurds there don't declare independence or try to seize the oil production center of Kirkuk.

One often-repeated scenario is that in the event of a U.S.-led war, Iraqi Kurdish troops could move south, out of their zone of control, to seize Kirkuk.