By Paul Wood BBC Middle East correspondent in Cairo

That is according to the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, who says he supports what seems to be an attempt by the Saudis to persuade the Iraqi leader to go into exile.

The Americans have no idea of what they are getting themselves into Saudi official

The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, is in Cairo now as part of the increasingly frantic diplomatic efforts in the Arab world to try to avert a war.

Middle Eastern regimes know it is a war which will not be popular with their own peoples.

The pro-government Egyptian newspaper al-Akhbar, commented: "The USA may win the war against Iraq, but most certainly will lose the world's favour, because the whole world supports the weak Iraq against US hegemony."

There is a widespread perception in the Arab world that the United States, backed by Britain, is already intent on using force of arms to topple Saddam Hussein - and will subvert the process of United Nations weapons inspections to achieve this.

"The work of weapons inspectors will reveal the real truth only if... the USA and Britain stop interfering with their duties by hijacking and analysing the preliminary results of the inspectors' work," says the Saudi newspaper al-Jazirah.

Governing Iraq

But Kuwait's independent broadsheet al-Ra'y al-Am is already turning to the day after - and wondering if the Americans will really know what they are doing when it comes to governing Iraq.

The paper says: "Most of the [previous] US administrations have agreed in principle to replace the system in Iraq but have been challenged by the lack of experience and information about the Middle East."

One Saudi official close to the royal family tells me how he always quizzes the senior US policy-makers he meets in Washington:

"OK, you say you want to invade Iraq and set up a new government, tell me the names of two Iraqi tribes."

He has yet to find anyone in the administration who can answer this simple factual query.

"The Americans," he says, "have no idea of what they are getting themselves into."

The view of this Saudi official is that President George W Bush is bluffing and Saddam will blink first.

The recent findings of the weapons inspectors make this scenario look daily more over-optimistic - hence the frantic Arab diplomacy.