DUBAI, Sept 7 (AFP) - A Kurdish leader on Saturday condemned Russia, France and China for the defeat of a UN draft resolution condemning Baghdad for its incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan.

"The policies of Russia are based on immoral principles and guided by commercial interests," Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) chief Jalal Talabani told AFP.

"Russia is under the illusion that through its support for (president) Saddam Hussein it will recover the debts accumulated by Baghdad," he said, contacted by telephone from Dubai.

Iraqi troops evicted the PUK from the main Kurdish town of Arbil on August 31 and handed it over to new-found allies of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), sparking retaliatory US missile strikes.

In the UN Security Council, a US-backed British draft condemning Iraq was scrapped on Friday. The draft faced fierce resistance from the three other Security Council members with veto power China, France and Russia.

Talabani also condemned Paris and Beijing.

"Alas, the principles of the French people such as freedom, equality, democracy and human rights are today victims, like the Kurdish people, of the commercial and opportunist policies of the French government," he said.

"As for China, a country which oppresses its minorities like in Tibet, it had no choice but to give its blessing to the oppressive policies of Iraq," said Talabani.

The British draft resolution was defeated after four days of debate.

Russia wanted it to criticise "the use of force" in Iraq which would also refer to the missile strikes by Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday after Baghdad's incursion into the northern "safe haven" for the Kurds.

But the Americans refused to budge, insisting the resolution should only refer to Iraqi forces.