IRAQIS' PRESENCE STILL FELT BY KURDS.

Byline: Douglas Jehl The New York Times

Fifteen miles southeast of here, several hundred Iraqi soldiers with armored vehicles, light tanks and artillery have been seen encamped. Theirs is the most visible presence that President Saddam Hussein has retained in Kurdish territory since his forces joined in the assault on this city a week ago.

Leaders of the Kurdish faction that asked Iraq to take part in the military operation against a rival faction have insisted that all Iraqi soldiers have withdrawn from the area.

But the site, whose checkpoints are reportedly manned by Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas, stands as evidence that cooperation between the faction and Iraqi forces is continuing.

The site is north of the 36th parallel, the boundary fixed by the United States, Britain and France to protect the Kurds from the Iraqi military.

Aid workers who have driven past the camp say that it is surrounded by barbed wire and that the Iraqi force appears well dug in. They say the location of the force, near the village of Qosh Tepe, would allow its mechanized units to move quickly to assist the Kurdistan Democratic Party again as it continues to battle nearby with a rival faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

A reporter who tried to reach the camp was turned back at a checkpoint by KDP fighters who insisted on seeing written authorization for travel south of Irbil. Officials here and in the faction's headquarters at Salahuddin declined to authorize such a journey Saturday.

But photographers and aid workers who have traveled on the road past the camp said the Iraqi force stood out in a region bristling with Kalashnikov rifles and pickup trucks equipped with machine guns but where heavy weapons are rarely seen.

``In this context it's a substantial force,'' an aid worker said.

A week after KDP guerrillas captured Irbil from the PUK with the backing of some 30,000 Iraqi soldiers, the regional capital and its surroundings remain thick with armed men in an astonishing array of uniforms that ranges from trim fatigues to camouflage to baggy pants and turbans.

Some of those who crowded the halls of the city administration building, which has become an unofficial party headquarters, looked like Iraqi soldiers in attire that included a distinctive eagle and starred epaulets.

But some KDP fighters have long worn surplus Iraqi uniforms, and aid officials said that to their knowledge the Iraqi force near Qosh Tepe was the only one that had not withdrawn fully from the area, as the United States demanded before launching cruise missile strikes last week.

Massoud Barzani, the leader of the KDP, who invited the Iraqis to join in the attack on Irbil, told reporters in Salahuddin on Friday night that he had ``a natural right'' to ask Iraq for help and that it was Iraq's ``natural right'' to intervene against the PUK, which has received support from the government of Iran.

Barzani gave no indication that he intended to appeal to Iraq again. But Jalal Talabani, the PUK leader, told the Associated Press on Friday that Iraqi troops remained a threat to the Kurds.