And with signs Wednesday that Saddam Hussein authority was crumbling in Northern Iraqi cities that Kurds consider to be part of their historic ethnic territory, debate over the region's future was expected to intensify. 

At present, the Kurds are assuring U.S. officials they are not interested in independence and will be content with a measure of autonomy in the new Iraq. 

The old Iraq led by Saddam oppressed the 4 million Kurds of Northern Iraq. The worst came in 1988, when Saddam's legions are believed to have killed 150,000 Kurds, using chemical weapons against some. Since the end of the first Iraq war, U.S.- and British-enforced no-fly zones over Kurdish territory have prevented Saddam from reclaiming the area. 

As victims of Baghdad-inspired assaults, some Iraqi Kurds naturally think of separatism. And neighboring countries have been concerned for months that a U.S.-led war against Iraq would incite these tendencies among Iraqi Kurds and stateless Kurds elsewhere in the neighborhood, especially Turkey. 

The Kurds have been dismissing such concerns, perhaps mindful that moves toward independence would provoke a military response from all directions, and strong resistance from the United States itself. 

Still the worries persist. Administration officials say Turkish officials have been venting their anxieties about Kurdish intentions to U.S. diplomats after seeing television images of Kurdish forces approaching the oil fields in Mosul and Kirkuk. Kurdish forces tightened their ring around Kirkuk on Tuesday. 

Possession of the northern Iraq oil fields could give the Kurds the economic wherewithal to sustain a viable independent state. The Turks say they will not allow that to happen. 

"Entering northern Iraq will not be on the agenda as long as Iraq's territorial integrity is preserved," said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

He said Secretary of State Colin Powell gave him assurances last week that he need not fear a Kurdish split from Iraq. 

But some analysts believe the U.S. presence in the area is insufficient to keep the Kurds at bay. 

"It's important that the U.S. take some control over oil fields to keep Kurds from seizing them," says James Phillips, Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation. 

How the United States handles the overall Iraqi oil issue once the shooting stops will be closely monitored throughout the region, given the widespread perception in the Arab world that the United States wants to control Iraqi oil. 

Powell and other top U.S. officials have said American intentions are entirely benign. "The oil of Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people," Powell has said. 

"Whatever form of custodianship there is ... it will be held for and used for the people of Iraq. It will not be exploited for the United States' own purposes," Powell said. 

But Iraqis recall that foreigners controlled their oil for a good portion of the last century. U. S. forces now on the scene would be able to assume that role once Saddam is gone. And, as the No. 2 country worldwide in proven oil reserves, Iraq is a huge prize. 

Over the short term, an American role in overseeing the resuscitation of Iraq's oil industry is unavoidable. Last week, Philip J. Carroll, a former chief executive officer of Shell Oil Co., said he had been asked by the Pentagon to take on that task. 

Shell Oil is the U.S. arm of London-based Royal Dutch-Shell Group. 

Phillips, of the Heritage Foundation, says a U.S. presence is essential to ensure that Iraq's oil wealth is kept in trust for whatever the Iraqi government emerges down the road. Otherwise, he says, it could be grabbed by local factions. 

The notion that the U.S. seeks Iraq's oil wealth is a canard, Phillips says, noting that that the same concerns were raised at the time of Kuwait's liberation 12 years ago. 

"Last time I looked, Kuwaiti oil was in Kuwaiti hands," Phillips says.