Riyadh — Arab countries are considering an international undertaking to offer amnesty to some of Saddam Hussein's generals to encourage them to overthrow him and avoid a new war, according to Arab officials.

The officials say the undertaking envisions the international community — perhaps through the UN Security Council — agreeing to exempt from prosecution all but about 100 of Mr. Hussein's top military and political aides, the officials said.

That could encourage some Iraqi generals to overthrow Mr. Hussein without fear that they might have to answer later for crimes committed by his regime.

Such a move would spare Iraq and the rest of the Middle East from the devastating effects of a new war. The United States and Britain have threatened to launch an attack if Saddam does not surrender weapons of mass destruction, which the Iraqis maintain they no longer hold.

It would also keep intact the Iraqi army to maintain order in a post-Hussein Iraq and prevent the country from descending into civil war among rival Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds.

"It's worth telling the Iraqi military leadership that 'if you turn against Saddam, we will forgive you,'" one official said, insisting on anonymity, adding that those who did not turn on their leader could face potential war-crimes prosecution.

The official said military commanders and other key figures in the Iraqi government now believe that they must stand by Mr. Hussein despite the risks of certain defeat, because "if Saddam falls, we all fall."

"You want to create a wedge between him and his leadership, and the best way to do it is to just clearly state what happens to people who abandon Saddam," he said.

The officials spoke at a time when Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was in Washington, D.C., for a meeting with President George W. Bush. The official described the amnesty option as "just a train of thought," not an initiative.

Saudi officials in Riyadh have insisted that they are not actively involved in trying to encourage Mr. Hussein to go into exile, despite widespread reports in the Middle East to the contrary.

Perhaps in response to talk of exile, Mr. Hussein warned his military commanders this week to be alert for "treason" at this time of national crisis.

"Treason everywhere is a state of weakness, it is the height of human weakness," he said in remarks broadcast by Iraqi television. "The basic prerequisites of proper humanity are sincerity and loyalty, and not treason."

For many Iraqi generals, the fear of war-crimes prosecution or retribution from ordinary Iraqis is very real. Many of them have been identified with some of the most brutal acts of Saddam's regime.

Last year, General Nizar al-Khazraji, the exiled former Iraqi army chief of staff, was unable to participate in meetings of Iraqi opposition groups after Danish authorities placed him under house arrest in connection with his alleged role in the 1988 poison gas attacks on Iraqi Kurds that killed an estimated 5,000 people.