At least 23 people were killed in Tuesday's strong earthquake in western and central Mexico, the national civil defense authorities said on Wednesday.

The quake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter Scale, struck around 8: 11 p.m. (0211 GMT) in Colima, a small western state, about 500 kilometers west of Mexico City. Radio reports from Colima said 21 people were killed and 204 others were injured in the state, and most of the victims died or injured after portions of offices and residential buildings collapsed near the center of the Colima city. Nearly all of the state remained without electricity and phone service.

In Guadalajara, the capital of the neighboring state of Jalisco,the quake killed two people and injured 158 others. The death toll is expected to rise as the rescue work continues.

Residents of 10 cities in Colima and four cities in Jalisco have been evacuated. The National Seismological Service said at least 12 aftershocks have been felt following the earthquake.

A strong offshore earthquake affected Mexico City on Sept. 19, 1984, killing 7,000 people, injuring 11,000 and leaving 300,000 others homeless. The damage stood at 1.1 billion US dollars.

NZ forces not being prepared for deployment to Iraq

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Thursday that New Zealand forces were not being prepared for deployment to Iraq and no request for the deployment had been received. She made the remark following the reports that Australia had decided to start preparing special forces for deployment to Iraq.

Clark told the National Radio, "We've been very clear that ourposition is to back the diplomatic process running its course." "If the diplomatic process ran its course with the Security Council then saying 'we see no other option but to take direct action', we have said we would look at how we could make a contribution, most likely to be of a medical, humanitarian or logistic kind," she said.

"But we are a very long way away from that scenario," she added.

Prime Minister Clark said she knew in advance of the Australian government's decision to start preparing special forcesfor deployment to Iraq. "It doesn't come as any surprise because Australia has indicated from the outset that it is following very closely in line with what the United States is doing."

Clark said the United States already had a huge forward deployment, as did Britain.

"The question now will be whether this is a prelude to an armed intervention without the UN, or is it an attempt to work on the mood at the Security Council where presently the indications are that most nations would want to give the weapons inspectors more time but the US is impatient," she said.

Clark said the military build-up might put pressure on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution warning Iraq that it was very close to being in breach of its obligations.

United Nations weapons inspectors currently looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are due to report to the Security Council next week, with the United States indicating it is prepared to go to war.

Iraq shoots down US unmanned spy plane

Iraqi anti-aircraft shot down Wednesday a US unmanned Predator drone which entered the country from Kuwait, the official INA news agency reported.

"Our heroic air defense soldiers succeeded in downing a US intelligence plane, a Predator, coming from Kuwait," the INA quoteda military spokesman as saying.

"The US surveillance plane that violated Iraq's international airspace is used by the US enemy to spy on our civilian and military installations and it is a very sophisticated plane with advanced electronic equipment," he said.

On Dec. 23, Iraqi forces also succeeded in downing a similar US Predator drone over the southern on-fly zone.

US and British planes have been patrolling Iraq's southern and northern no-fly zones since the 1991 Gulf War with the claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from the persecution of the Iraqi government.

Iraq has repeatedly refused to recognize the two no-fly zones, saying they were not mentioned in any relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

Most African countries to phase out leaded petrol in five years

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said Wednesday that within five years, most Africancountries will have phased out or be close to phasing out leaded petrol.

A survey released here by UNEP shows that four countries -- Egypt, Libya, Mauritius and the Sudan -- are already fully lead free. And this year, four other nations or dependent territories, Morocco, Reunion, Tunisia and Western Sahara will join them.

Meanwhile, a further 22 including Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo and Uganda have or are in the process of drawing up action plans to phase out leaded petrol by 2006, said the survey.

Plans are also under way to bring the remaining countries on board, many of whom are in Central Africa, in order to deliver the goal of a lead-free Continent and a lead free world.

Studies have demonstrated that children living near roads and in urban areas where leaded petrol is used, can suffer brain damage with symptoms including lower intelligence scores.

Around 90 percent of the world's petrol supplies are now unleaded. However, the 10 percent that is still leaded is concentrated in developing countries, especially Africa.