According to this report, the rumor is false, at least for the time being.

US officials have said rumours that Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz had either defected or been shot dead fleeing Baghdad are untrue.



The rumours affected oil prices in New York as the George W. Bush's deadline for Saddam and his sons to flee Iraq appraoched.

A US official said: "These rumours are just not true".

It had been rumoured that Aziz had fled to Kurdish-held northern Iraq.

But an a senior Kurdish source scoffed at the rumour Aziz was being held by Kurdish forces.

Rumours of the imprisonment, flight or death of members of Saddam Hussein's administration are common, but rarely turn out to be true.

Aziz was seen in Iraqi TV coverage of Tuesday's cabinet meeting with Saddam.