U.S. PATROL FLIGHTS COULD WIDEN RIFT BETWEEN JORDAN, IRAQ.

Byline: Douglas Jehl The New York Times

For the first time since the Persian Gulf War, American warplanes are preparing to carry out patrols over southern Iraq from neighboring Jordan, a step that could elevate tensions between Baghdad and Amman.

Jordan sided with Iraq during the war, in 1991, and remained aligned with Iraq until eight months ago. It has since reversed its course, but its decision to permit the American aircraft to use Jordan as a base for flights over Iraq is being seen as evidence of a wholesale transformation in its policy toward Iraq.

``It's an irreversible step,'' said a Western diplomat based in Amman, the Jordanian capital. Another well-placed envoy there described the move as Jordan's ``most hostile action so far'' toward Baghdad.

Since he broke with Iraq last August, King Hussein of Jordan has granted refuge to several prominent Iraqi defectors, most notably to two sons-in-law of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. The king has encouraged Iraqi opposition leaders to establish an office in Amman and has ordered stepped-up scrutiny of shipments bound for Iraq by way of Jordanian ports to ensure compliance with U.N. sanctions.

Beginning this week, nearly three dozen U.S. Air Force F-15s and F-16s will be based for at least two months at an airfield near the Iraqi border to give tangible new form to the king's change of heart.

The aircraft, drawn from various bases in the United States, will join other American and allied warplanes in enforcing the no-flight zone in the southern third of the country, where Iraqi aircraft have been prohibited from flying since August 1992.

The zone was established by the United States, France, Britain and Russia to limit Iraq's military suppression of dissident Shiite Muslims in the region. Saddam and most of his government are members of Iraq's large Sunni Muslim minority.

Until now, the patrols have been carried out exclusively by aircraft operating from carriers in the Persian Gulf and from bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, all wartime allies. The United States and its allies carry out similar aerial patrols from bases in Turkey to help protect Kurds in northern Iraq.

Because the pro-Iraqi sentiment in Jordan, particularly among the country's large Palestinian population, that led Hussein to oppose Western intervention during the Gulf War still runs deep, some officials and diplomats in Amman consider his decision to offer his territory as a base potentially risky politically.

They said the discomfort would multiply if an American plane operating from Jordan fired on a threatening Iraqi plane or anti-aircraft emplacement.