WASHINGTON, July 8: The US military and Iraqi government are discussing plans under which American and other troops might begin helping protect foreign diplomats in Baghdad, a senior US general said on Friday.

Army Maj. Gen. William Webster, commander of multinational forces in the Baghdad area, told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference from Baghdad that something needed to be done “very quickly” to counter attacks against foreign diplomats in the Iraqi capital.

The most recent was last Saturday, when Al Qaeda kidnappers snatched Egyptian envoy Ihab el-Sherif from a Baghdad street and killed him.

The American military in the past has been reluctant to commit its troops to protect diplomats, leaving the task to Iraqi security forces and hired guards.

“In meetings recently with senior Iraqi leaders, we’ve been putting together plans for the future. And we recognize that all of our forces must be available to help protect our international diplomats who are helping to begin relations with this new democratic government,” the general said.

“I’m not sure that, in the end, it will result in US forces directly guarding some of those diplomats,” Webster told reporters. “We have not finalized our plan yet. But we certainly recognize we’ve got to do something very quickly.”

BODY NOT FOUND: Meanwhile, the body of Egypt’s envoy to Iraq, who was kidnapped last weekend and later killed, has not yet been found, the US commander said.