The officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the disrupted attacks had been planned by members of Iraq's intelligence service masquerading as diplomats and had targetted US and British interests.

"We have compromised particular operations in two countries and we have information about plots in other countries," one senior State Department official said. "We have indications of widespread threats by the IIS."

A second senior US official said the IIS, the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had plans to launch attacks on US and British interests in about 11 cities, many of them in the Middle East and the Gulf, Asia and perhaps London.

The officials would not identify the two countries in which the attacks had been thwarted but said authorities in those nations had assisted in disrupting the plans. On Sunday, Jordan expelled five Iraqi diplomats, accusing them of trying to undermine "security" in the kingdom.

The officials said that a US request earlier this month for some 60 countries to expel Iraqi intelligence agents posing as diplomats had been instrumental to breaking up of the plots.

"These are the guys who are intelligence people who we asked governments to PNG," the second official said, using the diplomatic term for declaring a diplomat "persona non grata."

"The IIS has primacy at Iraqi embassies around the world," the first official said. "We have approached number of countries about expelling Iraqi diplomats, many of whom have done so, and we are continuing to work with friends and allies on this."

About 79 Iraqi diplomats have been expelled from countries around the world in response to the US request, the officials said.

The announcement of the break up of the plots followed the release of comments by the State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator Cofer Black in which he said Washington expected to see a spike in terrorist attacks as the war against Iraq continues.

"Small-scale and possibly large-scale attacks in various parts of the world are likely," Black said in testimony before a House international relations subcommittee on Wednesday.

In those comments, he said the United States was deeply concerned by an apparent moves by Baghdad to hand control of many of its diplomatic missions to Iraqi intelligence officials.

"We have strong indications that Iraqi intelligence officials are assuming stronger authority over Iraqi diplomatic missions overseas," Black said.

"This activity is of particular concern, especially in light of additional indications that Baghdad may instruct its representatives overseas to take actions against Western interests," he said.

In addition to the threat from Iraqi intelligence, Black said Washington expected attacks from violent groups opposed to the conflict or using it as a pretense to vent anger at other US policies.

He stressed that the threat is global and that intelligence agencies expected US and western interests to be targeted not only by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network but other terrorist organizations.

"We always have been concerned about several sources of attacks: not only those by al-Qaeda and related groups but also by terrorists operating at the behest of Iraq or in sympathy to Iraq," he said.

"These attacks could come against US and coalition targets from groups or individuals who have no ties with Iraq or al-Qaeda and are acting without central direction but feel strongly enough against the US, the west in general or the war to strike now," Black said.

He noted that terrorists committed some 200 attacks, most of them minor and many of them seemingly unrelated to Iraq, during the 1991 Gulf War.

"With several major exceptions, they were conducted primarily by groups or individuals with no known connections to Iraq," Black said.

"In the current situation, we would expect al-Qaeda to launch attacks against US interests and assert that they were defending Muslims and the people of Iraq," he said.

During the buildup to the war over the past several months, he said US and other intelligence officials have reported an increase in "suspicious activities" around military facilities, ports, bridges and power plants.

All of these "have economic as well as symbolic significance," he noted and reiterated US concerns that al-Qaeda had shown particular interest chemical, biological, chemical and improvised radioactive weapons.

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