WASHINGTON (AFP) - Foreign diplomats in Iraq no longer enjoy diplomatic immunity or any of the privileges they were accorded under their accreditation to Saddam Hussein's former regime, the US State Department said.

In addition, spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington is advising foreign countries to hold off on sending envoys to Baghdad until a new Iraqi government is in place as "at this point there is really no purpose" for them to be there.

Responding to reporters' questions about a raid on the Palestinian mission in Baghdad and the arrest of three Palestinian diplomats by US forces, Boucher first said that neither the envoys nor the property held any diplomatic status.

"There are diplomats who were previously accredited to the Saddam regime who have been residing in former mission residences who are still there," he said.

"We do not regard those as diplomatic missions, they are accredited to a regime that is no longer existent and, therefore, their accreditation has lapsed," Boucher said.

"They and their premises don't have diplomatic status," he added firmly.

… US forces in Iraq ransacked the Palestinian mission in Baghdad overnight Tuesday, arresting at least eight people, including seven Palestinians and a Syrian, the top military commander said earlier Thursday.

… And, he said the United States would discourage attempts by any country to send diplomats to Baghdad and had the authority to bar them from coming in.

"As a matter of policy ... we discourage foreign diplomats from entering Iraq," Boucher said.

"There is no Iraqi government for them to interact with, there is no Iraqi government to grant the privileges and immunities that diplomats would normally have inside a country," he said.

"We, in terms of the kind of control we have to have at this point, also reserve the right to exclude people who we don't think belong there," Boucher said.