LOS ANGELES, July 10: Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen Tommy Franks on Wednesday said talks are underway with India and Pakistan for sending their troops to Iraq.

Rumsfeld and Franks were testifying before the Senate’s armed services committee.

About 19,000 troops from 19 countries in addition to the US were in Iraq, Rumsfeld said. Nineteen more countries, he said, had committed a total of 11,000 troops while discussions were underway with 11 other countries.

Gen Franks, who testified along with Mr Rumsfeld, said talks were continuing with Pakistan and India, Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

Recently, army officials had warned that the heavy and prolonged commitment of the US troops in Iraq “straining the military’s ability to protect against potential threats elsewhere.

Referring to the length of the US troops’ stay in Iraq, he said: “We intend to see it through, and it’s going to take some patience.”

“The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,” Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“We acted because we saw the existing evidence in a new light through the prism of our experience on 9/11.” He estimated that US military operations in Iraq were costing $3.9 billion a month.

Rumsfeld’s testimony came a day after the White House acknowledged that President Bush’s assertion, which he had made during his State of the Union speech, that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa was based, in part, on forged documents.