Iraq's foreign minister yesterday sought help from Iran in cracking the U.N.-imposed embargo on Baghdad, but the United States and Soviet Union renewed their commitment to the sanctions.

Syria's official news agency reported that a series of 46 explosions were heard in the Iraqi town of Al-Qaim near the border, resulting in an undetermined number of casualties. ABC News identified the site of the blasts as the al-Qaim chemical plant.

The official Iraqi News Agency denied the report of explosions in Al-Qaim.

Last month, Polish workers returning home from Iraq reported that about 35 Americans were brought to the chemical plant in Al-Qaim on Aug. 17 under guard. It was not known whether any Westerners are still being held as human shields at the plant.

Also yesterday, more Americans flew to freedom after being held in Iraq and Kuwait. Hundreds are still held as human shields against U.S. and other forces building up in the Persian Gulf region since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait five weeks ago.

Denmark's ambassador in Kuwait left his besieged embassy yesterday. Iraqi forces that invaded Kuwait August 2 are trying to starve diplomats out of the U.S. and other embassies.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz met with Iranian officials in Tehran, Iran's capital, in the first official Iraqi visit since the two countries went to war in 1980. The fighting ended in a cease-fire in August 1988.

Sources in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aziz was likely to ask Iranian officials to allow shipments of food and medicine into his country. The U.N. embargo permits only humanitarian shipments of such supplies.

The trip by Aziz paves the way for a meeting between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani to sign a peace treaty officially ending hostilities.

Peace talks bogged down until Saddam last month began pulling troops out of Iranian territory and exchanging prisoners. The move apparently freed up hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops along the two countries' 750-mile border for possible deployment in the Persian Gulf crisis.

In yesterday's talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati reiterated his country's condemnation of the invasion of Kuwait. But he also criticized the presence of U.S. and other foreign forces building up in the Persian Gulf, according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran's radical parliament speaker, Mehdi Karribui, warned of Moslem terrorist acts against U.S. interests unless Washington withdraws its forces from the gulf, IRNA reported.

Another warning of terrorist attacks came from the leader of a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Abul Abbas, head of the Palestine Liberation Front, told the American news network CNN that his group could launch attacks "if the United States initiates the attack on the Arab people and on us."

In another indication that Iraq was hurting from the U.N.-imposed sanctions, the Baghdad government is cracking down on black marketeers.

Iraqi newspapers yesterday published a government decree saying anyone hoarding food or gouging prices on scarce food will face jail terms of up to 15 years. Food rationing already is underway.