11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

WASHINGTON, July 10: The Bush administration believes that with the largest army in the Islamic world, Pakistan can play a key role in raising a Muslim force for Iraq, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Saturday.

The Bush administration appears keen to reduce the existing pressure on US forces in Iraq and wants to achieve this target preferably before the presidential elections in November.

US forces are facing almost daily attacks by Iraqi militants, and their casualties have become a liability for President George W. Bush.

President Bush officially sought Pakistani troops for Iraq while signing a $3 billion economic assistance package for Pakistan at the Camp David presidential resort in June 2003.

Later at a joint news conference at Camp David, President Pervez Musharraf indicated Pakistan's willingness to send the troops but did not say when and how the troops will be sent.

The United States also made no serious attempt to raise such troops until now because Pakistan - and America's other Muslim allies - had said it would only contribute troops to a force either mandated by the United Nations or requested by an Iraqi government.

That condition has been fulfilled with the installation of an interim Iraqi government on June 28, and late last month Washington sent a senior military official to Islamabad to remind Pakistan the pledge President Musharraf had made when he met President Bush at Camp David in June 2003.

After his meetings with President Musharraf and other Pakistani generals, Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the US Central Command, said he had discussed "the geo-strategic environment, the security situation and ways and means to further enhance ties between the armed forces of the two countries" with the Pakistanis.

The Pakistani media, however, reported that during his talks with Pakistani leaders, the US general emphasized the need for raising a Muslim force for peace duties in Iraq and hoped Pakistan could play a leading role in that force.

The need for Pakistani troops has been further enhanced with the announcement of the new government in India, another country with a large army, that it would not be sending its troops to Iraq. After their talks with Gen. Abizaid, Pakistani officials indicated their willingness to send troops to help the UN mission in Iraq, and a recent UN move may make it easier for Pakistan to do so.

Diplomatic sources have confirmed that Pakistan's ambassador to the United States is a front-runner to head the United Nations mission in Iraq.

The sources said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already discussed the possibility with Gen. Musharraf who has given his consent.

The Pakistani Ambassador in Washington, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, is a career diplomat who has previously headed his country's missions in India and China.

The posting to India is considered the toughest diplomatic job in Pakistan because of the tense relations between South Asia's two nuclear states.

Despite these tensions, Mr Qazi won the admiration of both the Indian bureaucracy and the media, and at a recent meeting in Washington a senior Indian diplomat described him as "a thorough professional".

Americans hope that as a senior Muslim diplomat, Mr Qazi would be more acceptable to the Iraqis than others, and his inclusion in the UN mission may also encourage Pakistan to contribute troops to a UN-mandated force for Iraq.