SEDITION AND TERRORISM

U.S. officials have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a ''sectarian war'' in Iraq in the coming months.

The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under U.S. scrutiny for suspected ties to al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. He is also believed to be operating in Iraq...

The memo says extremists are failing to enlist support inside the country and have been unable to scare the Americans into leaving, and laments Iraq's lack of mountains in which to take refuge.

Yet an attack on Iraq's Shiite majority could rescue the movement, according to the document. The aim, the document contends, is to prompt a counterattack against the Arab Sunni minority.

Such a ''sectarian war'' will rally the Sunni Arabs to the religious extremists, the document argues. The document says that a war against the Shiites must start soon -- at ''zero hour'' -- before the Americans hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis at the end of June.