The journalist, a member of a French television crew, had been trying to enter Iraq for the past five days.

Eventually, he became so fed up that he got into his car and accelerated past the checkpoint between Umm Qasr and Safwan, sending border guards running for cover.

Several shots were fired at the journalist’s vehicle, but none found their mark.

In a telephone interview with Arab News, the journalist — who asked that he not be identified — said: “I’ve been trying to enter into Iraq to do my job for the past five days. I’ve tried every legal method and obtained all the permits required by the British and the Americans. But the Kuwaitis are still not allowing us to cross.”

A military police officer with the US Army said that the Kuwaitis had been very selective about who they allowed across the border into Iraq.

“They are being particularly hard with the French, possibly because of the French government’s stand on the war,” he said.

After the death of at least one member of the ITN soon after the war started, the death of a BBC cameraman who stepped on a land mine, and the arrest of seven Italian journalists by the Iraqi police, Kuwaiti Police Intelligence officials who normally issue the permits to unilateral non-embedded journalists have all but stopped doing so.

Col. Madir, of Kuwaiti Intelligence Service told Arab News that no more permits are being issued.

“Anyone who wants to enter into Umm Qasr or Safwan to report on humanitarian aid can join a convoy leaving daily by bus,” he said. “No other entry into Iraq will be allowed.”

In the past, journalists were allowed to travel in their own vehicles to film the humanitarian relief effort, but they took the opportunity to escape into Iraq. Now no journalists are being allowed to drive their own vehicles. Nonetheless, several journalists are finding their way into Iraq using a variety of methods.

Some journalists have bluffed their way in, some have tagged along with military convoys, some have traveled the back roads, taking advantage of holes in the fences and timing their attempts to coincide with the guards’ shift change.

There is a thriving black market business of smuggling journalists into Iraq, the going rate varying from $500 to $1,000 per person.