The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, linked the holdup to the U.S. refusal to close the American Embassy in Kuwait City.
"We are having a problem," an official said amid a round of consultations between the State Department and the White House.
Cable News Network reported from Baghdad: "Iraq has changed the rules . . . Iraq is now saying 'No, they can't leave the country until all U.S. diplomatic personnel leave the country' (Kuwait)."
Baghdad, which ordered all foreign embassies in the occupied city to close by today, had assured diplomats they would be free to leave.
But CNN said the U.S. party that fled to Iraq ahead of the closure order could now be added to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hostage list.
About 3,000 Americans are among the 21,000 westerners stranded and threatened in Iraq and Kuwait. There are also about 3,000 Britons.
In other developments related to the gulf crisis:
* Seven OPEC nations will meet informally Sunday to discuss the Persian Gulf crisis that has tightened world oil supplies and sent crude prices soaring, Venezuela's president said today. Saudi Arabia and Venezuela would like OPEC's approval to boost oil production to help meet the shortfall.
* Jordan said it was reopening its eastern border today to receive thousands of people, many of them penniless Egyptians, fleeing Iraq and occupied Kuwait. The border had been closed 40 hours because of the congestion of refugees.
* Iran said for the first time today that it will enforce the international trade embargo designed to punish Iraq for invading and annexing Kuwait, Tehran radio reported. The broadcast quoted Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying: "We respect, and will abide by the Security Council decision."
Iraqi troops today patrolled near at least seven embassies in Kuwait City and a Spanish diplomat said Baghdad threatened to use force to remove Western diplomats who were still at their posts tomorrow.
Iraq, which invaded and annexed Kuwait earlier this month, had given foreign governments until 9 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT) today to vacate their embassies in Kuwait. Diplomats in Washington, however, said that deadline had been extended to midnight.
Baghdad said keeping embassies open would amount to an "act of aggression" and that diplomats would no longer be protected by diplomatic immunity, meaning they could be rounded up and held as hostages.
Spain's Ambassador to Amman, Ramon Armengod, told a news conference in Madrid today that Iraqi authorities told Western embassies in Kuwait that they now had until 8:30 a.m. Saturday (12:30 a.m. EDT tommorrow) to close.
He said that after that deadline, Iraqi troops would forcibly remove remaining Western diplomats from their missions.
There were conflicting reports from European governments of the extent of troop activity around their embassies.
European officials reported that troops were surrounding or patrolling near the British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian and Hungarian embassies. The officials said they received the information from their embassy personnel in Kuwait.
The United States, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and the 12 European Community nations were among those who announced they would defy the order and remain in the occupied oil-rich kingdom.
U.S. Ambassador Nathaniel Howell and a dozen other Americans stayed at the palm-shaded American compound, a rectangle facing a six-lane highway bordering the Persian Gulf. Marine guards were among 33 carloads of embassy personnel who drove nearly 20 hours to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad yesterday.
Egypt took one of the most defiant stances, announcing yesterday that it would not close its embassy or reduce its staff of 20.
In Cairo, four truckloads of riot police remained outside the Iraqi Embassy where they have been stationed since the Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.
Soviet officials said in Moscow they had evacuated all of their embassy personnel from Kuwait, but that they did not consider the mission closed.
The Philippines, India and Lebanon are among those nations who said they would obey the order and close. About 60 countries have embassies in Kuwait.
