Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan gave the warning on Qatari television.

Asked if Iraq would accept the flights of US and British aircraft that maintain air exclusion areas, Mr Ramadan said: "We say frankly now that any violation of Iraqi airspace will be met by Iraqi fire."

The interview was conducted in Baghdad hours after Iraq said that its anti-aircraft gunners had driven off an attack by "enemy" warplanes in southern Iraq.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said RAF planes coming under threat would return fire.

Jonathan Marcus: Iraq throwing down gauntlet

BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Iraq has limited capacity to defend its air space and any attempt to fire on western aircraft is likely to be met with a robust response.

Confusion over firing incident

A statement by the official Iraqi news agency said that at 1115 am (0815 GMT) a formation of "enemy" warplanes "attacked one of our air defence sites, which confronted it and forced it to drop its load randomly".

Iraq says it forced the planes to drop their bombs

The agency did not identify the nationality of the aircraft, but usually uses the word "enemy" for the United States and Britain.

After initial confusion, defence officials in Washington and London said a Tornado crew enforcing the no-fly zone in southern Iraq had seen anti-aircraft fire from the ground, but too far away to constitute an attack.

The air exclusion zone across southern Iraq was imposed in 1992 under the banner Operation Southern Watch to protect Shi'a Muslims from government attacks. The operation in the north to protect Iraqi Kurds began a year earlier.

No UN inspectors

Meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament has reaffirmed an earlier decision not to allow UN weapons inspectors to return to the country following the recent air strikes by the US and UK.

"Parliament reiterates its previous decision to break off co-operation with Unscom, which was buried by the mercenary aggression" of the United States and Britain, it said in a statement.

The weapons inspectors withdrew from Baghdad shortly before the four days of attacks launched against targets in Iraq.

Baghdad's three-way attack

In an unusual move, an influential Iraqi newspaper has launched a scathing condemnation of Russia, China and France, accusing them of not doing enough to stop the military strikes.

Russia opposed the air strikes

While Russia and China strongly opposed the four-day offensive this month by the US and the UK, France was less vocal in its criticism.

But the three countries - seen as Baghdad's traditional friends on the United Nations Security Council - were individually condemned in Iraq's Babel newspaper.

Babel - controlled by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son Uday - attacked China for responding to the Gulf crisis by simply handing out statements from its foreign ministry.

It said the French position was so hesitant and unclear that Iraqis could not decide where France stood.

And Russia was accused of extracting concessions from Iraq in the past without giving anything in return.