  This paper reports the star count predictions of warped and flaring models of
the outer Milky Way disk. These have been suggested as possible locations of
the lenses responsible for the microlensing events towards the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC). Three such models are investigated in detail and the theoretical
predictions are confronted with {\it Hubble Space Telescope} (HST) star count
data in 7 low latitude fields ($30^\circ < | b| < 40^\circ$). If the warped and
flaring disk population has the same characteristics as disk stars in the solar
neighbourhood, then the models can be unambiguously ruled out. Metallicity
gradients are well-known in disk galaxies and may cause the outer disk
population to differ in colors and luminosity from that locally. This effect is
studied using a simple ansatz for the variation in the color-magnitude relation
with position and while it is shown to lead to better agreement with the star
counts, upper limits on the contribution of the warped and flaring disk to the
optical depth are still below the value measured towards the LMC. Only if the
warp is very asymmetric or if the luminosity function changes strongly with
Galactocentric radius can the models be made consistent with the starcounts.
