The strong perfect-graph conjecture is true for K<SUB>1,3</SUB>-free graphs

The partition number &#952; of a graph G is the minimum number of cliques which cover the points of G. The independence number &#945; of G is the maximum number of points in an independent (stable) set of G. A graph G is said to be perfect if &#952;(H)=&#945;(H) for every induced subgraph H of G. Berge's strong perfect-graph conjecture states that G is perfect iff G does not contain C<SUB>2n+1</SUB> and <SUB>2n+1</SUB>, n&#8805;2 as an induced subgraph. In this paper we show that this conjecture is true for graphs which do not have K<SUB>1, 3</SUB> as an induced subgraph. The line graphs thus belong to the class of graphs for which the conjecture is true