Kuwait says won't be launchpad for strike on Iran

KUWAIT, June 11 (Reuters) Kuwait said today it would not allow its key ally the United States to use its territory to launch any strike on Gulf neighbour Iran if a row over Tehran's nuclear programme escalates.

The move comes against a backdrop of rising worries in the Gulf Arab state, which was the launch pad for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, about prospects of a war in the Gulf.

''The United States has not made a request and we will not agree to (such a request),'' Defence and Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah told reporters.

He was responding a question on whether the US had asked Kuwait, where several thousand US troops are based, to use its territory in case of a military confrontation with Iran.

The US accuses Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons and has not ruled out a military strike although US officials say they want a diplomatic solution. Iran says its nuclear programme is for power generation.

Kuwait is concerned about any strike on the Bushehr nuclear power station that Russia is building for Iran. The Iranian port city lies 300 km (185 miles) from Kuwait.

REUTERS DS RAI2250