Contrary to media reports stating that IDF commandos entered western Iraq weeks prior to the outbreak of war, and that they were continuing to hunt for Scud launchers at present, Major-General Amos Gilad said Wednesday that there were no Israeli forces in Iraq, and that Israel was standing by a pledge to the United States to stay out of the war.

The Bush administration, struggling during the pre-war period to field a coalition to attack Saddam Hussein's regime, and sensitive to pan-Muslim opposition to the war, months ago reached agreement with the Sharon government to refrain from involvement in the conflict.

But recent media reports in Israel and abroad have said that Israeli officers have aided the war effort in a number of ways, including providing intelligence data, and acting as training advisers on urban fighting, countering suicide attacks, and dealing with aid distribution and other issues relating to the civilian population. The reports have also frequently stated that elite IDF reconnaissance units had acted as spotters in efforts to locate Scud launchers in the western desert.

Gilad, a former senior Military Intelligence officer who now holds the posts of Israeli policy chief for the territories and senior army spokesman on civil defense measures, also said that "the relative calm existing in Israel is largely as a result of the operations of the IDF and the security services.

"There has been no reduction in terror as a result of the Palestinian Authority." Gilad said that the naming of Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] as PA prime minister-elect had not had any affect on the security situation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Questioned about the threat to Israel from Iraqi Scud missiles, dozens of which struck the Jewish state during the 1991 Gulf war, Gilad told Israel Radio "In order to make manifest a threat to Israel, you must use Western Iraq," the only part of Iraq from which such missiles can reach Israel.

"Western Iraq is an enormous area. The United States has promised to remove this threat, and therefore American forces and others are operating there to the best of their abilities."

Asked if the reported presence of elite Israeli commandos in Western Iraq was the basis of security forces' assessments that the threat of Scuid attacks was low, Gilad said "When I say others, I am referring to forces belonging to other nations like Britain and Australia, not Israelis.

"There are no Israelis. The United States does not want Israelis in this war, and Israel has declared that it is not part of the war, and had acted accordingly."

U.S. officials have also pressed Israel to refrain from an automatic military response to possible Scud attacks, unless the missiles bore unconventional warheads.

"Israeli soldiers are not fighting alongside U.S. soldiers," Gilad said. "All those stories are incorrect."

Gilad said American officials from President George Bush on down had made it clear that Israel was to have no part in the war, and the Israeli government had so decided. Therefore, "Israel has no part in this war."