U.N. to Begin Relief Operations Today in Kurdish City : Iraq: Guerrilla leader says the rebels and the government are near an agreement on autonomy.

ZAKHU, Iraq — The United Nations will begin relief operations in the provincial Kurdish capital of Dahuk today even though some Kurdish refugees say they won’t go back there unless they are protected by Western troops.

Kurdish elders from two major border camps said they could not return to Iraqi-controlled Dahuk without guarantees for their people’s safety, according to U.S. and Kurdish officials.

The scheduled U.N. takeover underlines its expanding role in northern Iraq and that of private agencies in caring for thousands of refugees flowing to the lowlands from their miserable mountain encampments.

In another development Sunday, a U.S. Marine died in a road collision in northern Iraq. It was the second accidental death among American forces in the month-old operation to save Kurds and other refugees.

Meanwhile, a Kurdish rebel leader said the guerrillas and the government are nearing an agreement on Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq. The leader, Massoud Barzani, spoke with reporters in Baghdad on Sunday, a day after his latest talks with President Saddam Hussein.

Kurdish elders representing the people of Dahuk turned down an Iraqi offer, worked out with the allies, involving promises of security for returning Kurds. Under the plan, safety would perhaps be overseen by the United Nations or some other third group but not by coalition troops.

Fazal Merani, a leader of the rebel Kurdistan Democratic Party, said the elders still feel it is unsafe for the refugees to return without either some agreement with the Baghdad government guaranteeing Kurdish autonomy or a guarantee of allied military protection.

“If they achieved neither of these two, they would rather stay over there,” he said, indicating the Turkish border.

“Dahuk is the crunch point. The U.N. presence will be a trial-and-error method. If the Kurds don’t go home, then other ways must be searched,” said a British military officer.

Dahuk, home to more than 350,000 people before the war, is vital to the success of the allied plan to move the approximately 450,000 refugees back home from the rugged Turkish mountains. An additional 1 million Kurds fled to Iran after the Kurdish uprising was crushed in March.

Some U.S. military commanders have made no secret of their belief that it was necessary to add Dahuk to the security zone to get the Kurds home. But other U.S. and allied officials believe that securing the provincial capital could drag U.S. troops into a quagmire.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders presented the offer to Kurdish rebel leaders, who in turn described it to clan leaders from the Uzumlu and Cukurca border camps on Sunday.

More than 200,000 refugees, most living within the security zone, have streamed home from the mountain camps in recent weeks.

Army Col. Don Kirchoffner, speaking from allied headquarters at Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, said 70,000 refugees had returned in the 72-hour period ending Sunday evening. An estimated 240,000 to 250,000 refugees remain in the camps, he said.

The United Nations--which is cooperating with Iraqi as well as allied authorities--plans to send a convoy of food to Dahuk today and to set up a humanitarian center there, authorities said. The U.N. presence in the city is intended to reassure refugees.

The U.S. Marine killed Sunday was not identified by military spokesmen pending notification of relatives. He died when the rented water truck in which he was riding south of Zakhu collided with a five-ton dump truck, also driven by Marines.