Washington has scrapped plans to give the United Nations a bigger role in the occupation of Iraq, it was reported today.
The Bush administration instead hopes to persuade another 26 countries to send troops to serve under US and British command, Pentagon officials told the New York Times.
France, India and other several other nations had sought a greater UN role in Iraq as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping.
But US military officials fear that involving the UN, even indirectly, will hamper the fight against guerrilla forces that continue to attack US troops.
"The administration is not willing to confront going to the Security Council saying, 'We really need to make Iraq an international operation,'" a US official told the Times. "You can make a case that it would be better to do that, but right now the situation in Iraq is not that dire."
The US currently has 139,000 troops in Iraq. Britain has 11,000, and another 17 countries have sent 10,000 soldiers between them, which are under the command of the US or UK military.
Washington has already asked another 12 countries to provide forces including Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Portugal and Thailand. It ultimately hopes to enlist 44 countries to take part in the occupation.
The US wants the Security Council to this week pass a resolution welcoming the establishment of the 25-member Governing Council set up by US and Britain in Iraq. The resolution, intended as a gesture to recognise the legitimacy of the occupation, would also establish a UN "assistance mission" in Baghdad to support various UN activities in the city.
PA