KUWAIT -- Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev plans to fly to Baghdad on Thursday to help defuse tension in the region, while the United States, Britain and the Gulf states declared a common front Wednesday against Saddam Hussein.


Kozyrev, who will travel on from Iraq to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and possibly other Gulf states, was due to join two Russian envoys already in Baghdad to try to prevent a military confrontation that continues to threaten despite Iraq's withdrawal of troops it had massed along the Kuwaiti border. The two envoys, First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Viktor Posuvalyuk, head of the ministry's Middle East department, met Wednesday with Saddam and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz.


In Washington, the White House said there were now indications that the Iraqi withdrawal was broad-based, although spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers insisted there would be no change in the U.S. deployment.


Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher -- also in the area visiting Kuwait to meet with the foreign ministers of the emirate, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman -- had said Iraq still posed an unmistakable threat to Kuwait and Washington stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Gulf Arabs.


"We are united on what the goals should be,'' Christopher said. "We are exploring the techniques.''


British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd said:"We have to make sure that the threat Saddam Hussein has mounted is removed, and then we have to see how it can be prevented in the future.''


France, however, sounded a dissonant note Wednesday, saying Iraq had violated no UN resolutions and that the U.S. military buildup appeared motivated partly by domestic politics. "There is nothing illegal in the movement of Iraqi forces inside Iraq," said French Defense Minister Francois Leotard.


Indeed, President Bill Clinton's firmness won plaudits from members of Congress, and a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll published Wednesday showed that Americans supported his decision to send troops to protect Kuwait by more than 3-to-1.


France's foreign minister, Alain Juppe, also said that France opposed the creation of an exclusion zone for Iraqi land forces in southern Iraq, an idea being pushed by the United States and Kuwait to prevent Saddam from sending his armies close to Kuwait again.


The United States, Britain and France increased their presence in the region Tuesday with warships, attack aircraft and fighting troops, honoring 10-year defense pacts signed with Kuwait after the Gulf War. Bahrain sent ships and aircraft to Kuwait on Wednesday, the first Gulf state to join the U.S.-led buildup against Iraq.


With the arrival of U.S. troops, tensions in Kuwait eased somewhat Wednesday. Officials said oil operations -- the golden goose of the emirate's economy -- were continuing normally. Banks had plenty of dollars, gasoline stations were open, and there were no signs of hoarding.


In his first comment on the developments in the Gulf, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt urged Iraq to withdraw its troops from the border with Kuwait. (AP, Reuters)