NEW DELHI, July 4: India is growing more reluctant to join any international peacekeeping force in Iraq because of increasing attacks on US troops there and lack of consensus at home, officials said on Friday.

Fears of Indian troops getting sucked into combat have dimmed hopes of any agreement on the thorny issue, as Indian political parties on Friday reiterated warnings against acceding to requests of the United States to deploy personnel.

“We are now given to understand that our government has not made up its mind and is looking around because it is just not keen on sending troops to Iraq,” a highly placed source from Defence Minister George Fernandes’ Samata Party said.

“Fernandes too is not particularly keen and it seems the government is marking time because of the lack of a national consensus on sending troops,” the party source said.

The Samata Party is a key component of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government, which through a parliamentary resolution in April deplored the invasion of Iraq.

The importance of a national consensus on the issue was also underlined by Indian Foreign Secretary Kapil Sibal in talks in Washington this week.

“India is a democratic country. We have public opinion in our country ... Any decision that is taken by us must have political consensus and the US understands that position,” Mr Sibal said on Thursday in Washington after meeting National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Mr Sibal also spoke about “grey areas” such as the command and control structure of such a force, the role it would play and the areas of deployment.

In New Delhi, the Congress party, which opposes military deployments on principle, echoed Mr Sibal’s worries.

“The issue is not of modality. It is a matter of principle,” senior Congress MP Ashwani Kumar said on his return from Washington, where he met senators and congressmen to press with India’s stand on the issue.

“If the parliament of India by unanimous vote deplored the war on Iraq, how can the government commit its troops to a post-illegal war in Iraq. It will be an outright negation of that resolution.

“Also, today American soldiers are facing bullets every day in Iraq and the casualties are far greater than being reported,” said Mr Kumar.

“If Indian troops go on a peacekeeping mission and if they are seen as allies of the occupation force they too might suffer attacks,” he added.

Retired major general Afsir Karim, a former member of India’s National Security Board, too sounded a warning of the possibility of Indian troops getting bogged down in a conflict situation.

“If we must send the military then we should send technicians, engineers, doctors and not just combat forces, which can only fight and today from what we see is fresh combat resurfacing and the US forces are under fire,” Karim said.

Retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, one of India’s key military analysts, said New Delhi will have to consult Iraq’s neighbours before committing troops to a US-sponsored stabilization force.

“The new situation in Iraq, where fighting has begun, presents both challenges and opportunities and this is a defining moment for India to come to the assistance of the people of Iraq by offering humanitarian stabilisation.

“But we must step in only after consultations but with neighbouring nations such as Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Kuwait and we must also consult community leaders of Iraq in regions where India may be involved,” he added.

Reports in the Indian media on Friday said Russia, China, France and many Arab nations had all warned India against committing troops to Iraq.

The Indian military, which already has a blueprint for deployment, wants its troops to be posted in “non-conflict” zones like Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, a highly-placed defence ministry source said.

“But we first need a comprehensive consensus. We will not fight someone else’s dirty war,” the source added. —AFP