Iraq says it wants the United Nations Security Council to debate the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq which are patrolled by American and British planes.

The Iraqi ambassador to the UN, Nizar Hamdoon, said there were no UN resolutions to forbid Iraqi planes from flying in these zones, and the matter had never been debated by the Security Council.

Britain and the United States established the air exclusion zones after the Gulf War, citing a UN resolution from 1991 that condemned the Iraqi government for oppressing its civilian population.

Earlier, the Iraqi vice-president Taha Yasin Ramadan said Iraqi planes were defying the restriction, and Iraqi forces would again fire at British or American planes enforcing the ban.