WASHINGTON, July 11: The US Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to encourage US President George Bush to reach out to NATO and the United Nations for help in peacekeeping and rebuilding in Iraq, reflecting mounting worries in Congress that the operation is stumbling.

The Senate voted 97-0 for a non-binding resolution that said President Bush “should consider requesting formally and expeditiously” that NATO deploy forces to Iraq.

It also said Mr Bush should consider calling on the United Nations to urge members to provide military forces and civilian police, as well as resources to help rebuild and administer Iraq.

The measure backed continuing US operations, saying it was in the US interest “to remain engaged in Iraq in order to ensure a peaceful, stable, unified Iraq with a representative government”.

But it said conditions on the ground there “continue to pose a grave threat to American troops”. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the US deployment costs nearly four billion dollars per month.

The measure said administering and rebuilding Iraq likely would cost tens of billions of dollars over several years, and projected Iraqi oil revenues would not meet those costs.

One author of the measure, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, top Foreign Relations Committee Democrat, said he wanted the Senate “to weigh in now and not let the American people get suckered into thinking that Rumsfeld was right” that US forces could be drawn down to 30,000 and the occupation could be relatively short. Joseph Biden is pushing for a force in Iraq which is international and prepared to stay, if needed.—Reuters