stream of pilgrims are Sudan`s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Nigerian leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. As Moslems began spiritual preparations, Saudi newspapers kept up a barrage of criticism against Iraq for recalling some 18,000 would-be pilgrims from the border despite a Saudi offer to cover their costs and attacked him for using a religious duty for Moslems as a political weapon. The Iraqi pilgrims, who had been camped near a border crossing, were called back on Saturday in a dispute over the unfreezing of Iraqi assets in Saudi banks since Iraq`s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Some 6,000 Iraqis have made it to Mecca, joining the two million or so people who have descended on the city for the start of the annual ritual on Thursday. On Thursday, most pilgrims will travel to the plain of Mena, a few kilometres outside Mecca, to spend the night before climbing Mount Arafat, the site of Prophet Mohammed`s last sermon 14 centuries ago. "We must love each other, especially in this place of peace,"

said one Moroccan pilgrim after urging two angry pilgrims to make up. The Saudi authorities have been at pains to ensure the crowding does not lead to tragedies as in previous years. Last year, 119 people were killed in a stampede, while 343 people were killed in blaze that ripped through a camp in 1997. Iran`s official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday that Iranian pilgrims held a memorial service for more than 400 compatriots who were killed in cla-shes with Saudi police in 1987 during an Iranian-led political rally. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has insisted on holding a rally to denounce Israel and the United States during the pilgrimage in defiance of a Saudi ban on political activity.