Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ? Arab countries are considering an international undertaking to offer amnesty to some of Saddam Hussein’s generals to encourage them to overthrow him and avoid a new war, according to Arab officials.

The undertaking envisions the international community — perhaps through the U.N. Security Council — agreeing to exempt from prosecution all but about 100 of Saddam’s top military and political aides, the officials said.

That could encourage some Iraqi generals to overthrow Saddam without fear they might have to answer later for crimes committed by his regime.

Such a move would spare Iraq and the rest of the Middle East from the devastating effects of a new war. The United States and Britain have threatened to launch an attack if Saddam does not surrender weapons of mass destruction, which the Iraqis maintain they no longer hold.

It would also keep intact the Iraqi army in order to maintain order in a post-Saddam Iraq and prevent the country from descending into civil war among rival Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds.

“It’s worth telling the Iraqi military leadership that ‘If you turn against Saddam, we will forgive you,'” said one official, adding that those who didn’t turn on their leader could face potential war crimes prosecution.

The official said military commanders and other key figures in the Iraqi government now thought that they must stand by Saddam despite the risks of certain defeat because “if Saddam falls, we all fall.”

“You want to create a wedge between him and his leadership, and the best way to do it is to just clearly state what happens to people who abandon Saddam,” he said.

The officials spoke at a time when Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was in Washington for a meeting with President Bush. The official described the amnesty option as “just a train of thought,” not an initiative.