DUBAI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - King Abdullah of Jordan warned in comments published on Wednesday that sectarian bloodshed could split neighbouring Iraq into warring statelets. "If the situation continues this way ... then there are real fears of the division of Iraq into weak statelets fighting over limited interests," King Abdullah told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview. "The biggest losers in this will be the Iraqi people in all their sects." Jordan is among eight Arab allies of the United States which have backed President George W. Bush's plan to send an extra 20,000 troops to Iraq, hoping it can halt the slide into civil war. Moderate Arab countries fear sectarian violence in Iraq could spread across their borders and engulf the region. They are also concerned about increasing Iranian influence in Iraq, whose government is led by Shi'ite groups close to Tehran. "No one disagrees that such a spread would, if it deepens, have a very negative effect and serve no one," King Abdullah told the Saudi-owned daily. "Its destructive effects will reflect on everyone, increasing divisive conflicts, isolation and disintegration and this region will sink into slaughters whose duration no one knows," he said. "We hope the efforts of all Iraq's neighbours, including Iran, will help it out of its current crisis ... rather than sliding into a full civil war whose consequences will go beyond Iraq to hit the region."
