NEW YORK, Sept 21: Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi discussed proposals for rejuvenating the Iraqi army when he met President Pervez Musharraf in New York Monday evening, officials told Dawn.

The talks that continued till midnight at a New York hotel where the president is staying, reflected a shifting of focus on the US and Iraqi strategy for restoring peace to the war-ravaged country.

Previously, the United States and the interim Iraqi government, that came to power three months ago, were trying to recruit a multi-national force to maintain security in Iraq.

Officials told Dawn that in the Musharraf-Allawi meeting, the Iraqis did not even raise their earlier request for Pakistani troops for Iraq. "The Iraqis gave a detailed review of the current security situation in Iraq. They told us that they want to rebuild the Iraqi army to fight insurgents and to protect their frontiers," said a senior Pakistani official.