0
JEDDAH, July 28: The United States and Saudi Arabia discussed the possibility of deploying troops from Arab and other Muslim nations in Iraq, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal said on Wednesday.
"We had a preliminary discussion with the secretary on that," the foreign minister told reporters at a news conference with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. He gave no details on which countries might contribute and what conditions may be attached.
A deployment by Muslim nations would be a public relations coup for the United States, which has seen the occupation forces in Iraq reduced by the withdrawal of the Philippines, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras.
A senior State Department official said the United States was interested in the idea but wanted more details from Saudi Arabia. "We said it could be useful. We'll see how it gets fleshed out," said the US official, saying the US-Saudi talks concerned a "supplemental" force. There are about 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq, roughly 140,000 of them from the United States.
ALLAWI & G8: The United States is considering the idea of a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the Group of Eight nations and others who could help Iraq, Colin Powell said in Cairo on Wednesday.
It was unclear when or where such a meeting might take place or what concrete assistance it might offer Iraq. Mr Powell likened such a meeting to talks Iyad Allawi held in Cairo last week with officials of neighbouring nations who agreed to pursue closer security cooperation with Iraq, which wants them to seal their borders against armed infiltrators.
While that meeting agreed on further talks between security officials and interior ministers, it gave only qualified support to Mr Allawi's newly-installed government, which took office on June 28 under the protection of the US-led forces.
"We're looking to see if ... other nations that have an interest in Iraq - the G8 perhaps, and other nations - might participate in the broader grouping of individuals to assist the Iraqi interim government," Mr Powell told Egyptian television. The G8's members are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia. -Reuters
