New Delhi: The US had prior knowledge about Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein attacking Kuwait in 1990 but did nothing to stop him, says a former Indian diplomat in a new book.

In his book "The Ultimate Prize: Oil and Saddam's Iraq" (Allied Publishers), Ranjit Singh Kalha, former ambassador to Iraq, quotes the US envoy in Baghdad April Glaspie as telling Saddam on July 25, 1990: "We have no opinion on Arab-Arab conflict, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."

This was barely a week before Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug 2, 1990.

The US envoy also told the Iraqi president, "We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods... All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly."

Kalha, who retired as secretary in the ministry of external affairs in 2002 and was in Iraq around the time, notes in his book that is replete with unclassified documents: "If Saddam had any lingering doubts about the attitude of the US, these were soon cleared."

According to him, on July 27, 1990, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US was called to the Pentagon and told, "Iraq is going to invade Kuwait."