A secluded resort, fine for regime leaders looking to get away from it all

The hotel is described as luxury class and it boasts the longest private beach on the Mediterranean. But is it really a place where an ex-dictator and his chums would hide?

Nobody quite knows why the Cote d'Azur de Cham, five miles north of Lattakia in Syria, has been singled out for suspicion, but its barbed wire and a mysterious underground passage may have helped.

The rumours started when an Israeli website, www.debka.com, claimed the holiday complex had been booked - "prepaid and chartered" - by Baghdad. The group staying at the hotel "may include Saddam Hussein or his sons, but this is not confirmed," Debka said. "Top Iraqi officials are reported hiding there since March 23. They are guarded by a Syrian commando unit armed with anti-air missiles while Syrian naval missile boats secure the port."

On Sunday, in what may have been a coordinated gesture, the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC) announced that Saddam's son-in-law, Jamal Mustafa Sultan, and a senior official in Saddam's secret police, Khaled Abdallah, had surrendered to their organisation after returning from Syria.

Others, including Jamal's brother Kamal, the head of Saddam's guard, the INC said, are still hiding in Syria. Kamal was secretary of the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard, and is number eight on the US wanted list.

Approaching the Cote d'Azur de Cham hotel, there was no sign of missiles, but perhaps they were hidden behind the stalls selling beach balls. There is also a small funfair.

The hotel is a vast structure with 3,000 beds. But there is another section adjacent to it, known as "the residence", with 100 rooms in four-storey blocks grouped around a swimming pool with no obvious way in, a curious feature noted by the Lonely Planet guide to Syria. "We couldn't find an open gate in the barbed wire-topped fence," the guide says, adding: "It has such a foreboding, military air that you probably wouldn't want to stay there anyway."

Brown blinds are drawn across the windows, the swimming pool is empty, and the place seems abandoned, though its gardens are still cared for. Following the line of the barbed wire led to a small street where a man called out from a house on the other side.

"Hello, what are you looking for?" "The entrance." "It's under the ground," he said, "From inside the main building."

The man may be right. In the basement of the main building, opposite the toilets, there is what looks like the entrance to a tunnel though locked glass doors barred the way.

There were no Iraqi limousines in the car park, but in any case the most popular form of transport at the Cote d'Azur is novelty bicycles which can be hired.

The Syrian commandos guarding the hotel must have been taking a day off, because anyone could walk in. Once inside, the only problem was how to pick out the Iraqis. Syrians say they can easily spot an Iraqi from the face but they have trouble explaining their technique to foreigners.

"Look for men with jowls and a big moustache," one advised. "No," said another. "Look for men without a moustache and a pale upper lip where they have shaved it off."

It was a lot simpler than that. To look inconspicuous at the Cote d'Azur, you have to be in your 20s or the parent of two screaming children.

On the terrace, four women in headscarves were gathered round a table. One puffed on a hubble-bubble pipe in a rather masculine fashion. Could this be Uday in disguise? On closer inspection, not.

The hotel denies having any Iraqi guests, ex-members of the regime or otherwise. "No, never," said a receptionist.

So, if the Iraqi leaders are not at the Cote d'Azur, where are they? Western diplomats are convinced that some remain inside Syria. Iraqi limousines with blacked-out windows were seen in Damascus, they say, and the cars had official Syrian escorts.