After the war, many of those people left Kuwait or were deported, but pro-Iraqi sentiment remains.

No wonder that President Assad was so concerned about pro-Iraqi sentiments that he jammed the pro-Baghdad Jordanian Television and barely allowed his own press to even mention Syrian troops fighting alongside the Americans.

Stemming Opposition But the governments are not always in sync with the people, nor is it clear how durable the pro-Iraqi popular sentiments are.

Syrian reporters working for foreign news organizations say they have been told to avoid all reference in their dispatches to pro-Iraqi sentiment on the streets.

In those places, commitment to the Western-led coalition faces a potential challenge from pro-Iraqi sentiment on the streets.

The Syrian leader, moreover, has launched himself into a perilous gamble by supporting the American-led coalition against Baghdad, despite strong pro-Iraqi sentiment among many of his people.

The Palestinian Authority has shut down nine radio and television stations in the West Bank in recent days in an attempt to stifle public expressions of pro-Iraqi sentiment among Palestinians.

But the King, mindful of pro-Iraqi sentiments among his people, had refused to allow foreign troops on his territory or to distance himself further from Iraq, a stand that angered Americans.

France, Spain and Italy, which have large populations of North African immigrants, are most alarmed by the deterioration of their relations with Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, where pro-Iraqi sentiments were running strong.

Officials said that there was strong pro-Iraqi sentiment in both countries and that the United States feared there would be anti-American demonstrations and perhaps even reprisals if war breaks out in the gulf.