MOSCOW. Feb 9 : Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said today that military action by Allied forces in the Gulf risked exceeding the UN mandate to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait, report agencies.

In a statement carried by Tass, the official Soviet news agency. Gorbachev said the Soviet leadership remained committed to Security Council resolutions aimed at ending the Iraqi occupation.

But he added. "The logic of

the military operations, the character of the military actions. is creating a threat of going beyond the limits of the (UN) mandate."

He said he was sending a personal envoy to Iraq to meet President Saddam Hussein.

President Gorbachev culled on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein today to show proof of "realism". "At this critical moment" Mr. Gorbachev said. "I am making a public, insistent appeal to Sie President of Iraq

that he weigh once again all that is Involved for his country, and to show proof of realism which would allow him to work toward a sure and fair settlement."

Moscow was Baghdad's main ally and weapons supplier until the August 2 Invasion of Kuwait, after which it stopped all arms shipments. It is supporting the Allies diplomatically but has not sent troops to the Gulf. The situation in the Gulf Is becoming more alarming and dramatic ...the number of victims is multiplying and among them arc members of the civilian population." Gorbachev said.

Some conservatives have criticised Moscow's Gulf policy for being too similar to that of the United States and say the Soviet leadership should not have supported an attack on a former ally.

This week the communist party's central committee urged the Soviet leadership to do all it could to help end the

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent a reply to a peace initiative by neutral Iran today as President George Bush's two top military advisers visited the Gulf war zone to discuss i he liming of a ground ullcn-sive.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saadoun Hammadi. who visited Iran a week ago and took home a message from President Alt Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on ways of ending the Gulf war, returned with the Saddam's answer today. He crossed overland from Iraq at the Khosravi border crossing.

Iran, which fought Iraq

from 1980-1988. has given no details of its suggestions but Washington has reacted coolly to a possible Iranian peace bid.

Hammadl said on arrival Saddam had carefully studied Iran's proposals and "I am carrying a written answer.'

As he travelled to Tehran, Iraq's Defence Ministry newspaper Al-Qadislya said the massive air bombardment maintained by the United States and its Allies since the war began on January 17 had not shaken Iraq's confidence in victory.

The fact that they try to ignore is that the air raids they launched on Iraq during the past days have not weakened the capability of the Iraqis to confront and Inflict desiruction on enemy forces." it said in an editorial.

Ure United Nations Security Council decided on Friday to hold a formal meeting on the Gulf war with the United States and Britain advocating the session be held behind closed doors, a procedure not used for 15 years.

Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says the presence of 11.000 Pakistani troops in the Gulf doesn't detract from his mission to find a diplomatic end to a war