MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US requests Mercosur troops for Iraq.

The Bush administration has begun contacts with governments of three major Mercosur members with the purpose of inviting them to participate in a 15,000 strong multinational peace keeping force in Iraq.

Although no formal requests have been extended, United States government sources indicate that "soundings" have been going on for some time and included besides Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil and Chile, other countries such as India, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, according to what was published this week in "USA Today".

"We've consulted a number of countries, including Argentina, Chile and Brazil to see how they can contribute in Iraq. However there have been no formal requests", said a US government source.

Mercosur country members have said all along that any participation in peace keeping operations in Iraq can only take place under the United Nations umbrella. An initiative that is currently being discussed in the UN Security Council enabling the UN to have greater incidence in the reconstruction of Iraq, however the US insists that multinational troops must be under the Allied command.

Argentine and Chilean diplomatic sources confirmed the informal US approach but denied any formal request.

Following the latest attacks in Iraq against US troops the Bush administration hawks have had to concede to the doves headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell who has pushed for a greater international involvement.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who was adamant until last moment to increase the number of US troops in Iraq admitted that Washington was expecting a 15,000 multinational force contribution.

United States forces in Iraq and the Gulf number 160,000 and the Bush administration wants to rapidly bring that number down, with many of the "boys" back home by Christmas.

President Bush will be addressing the UN General Assembly this week when he's expected to announce his administration's future policy in Iraq.

Public opinion polls in the US indicate a growing concern about the economy, a dwindling although still significant support for war on terrorism but a strong denial of further funds for the Iraq operation which are not encouraging news for Mr. Bush re-election aspiration in 2004. The Bush administration requested an additional 87 billion US dollars for Iraq reconstruction

Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay regularly cooperate with UN peace keeping missions.