WASHINGTON, April 18: The United States has asked Pakistan to join a “stabilization force” it is setting up for keeping peace in Iraq, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

Pakistan is among dozens of other nations the Bush administration is consulting to join this force, the sources said.

They said the force, which may be formed soon, will have troops from several Muslim countries because US authorities believe that their presence would help pacify the Iraqis without hurting their religious feelings.

It is still not clear how many troops Pakistan could contribute to this force, the sources said, adding that such details were still being discussed.

The State Department has confirmed that it is setting up such a force but refused to disclose the names of the countries invited to join the force.

“A telegram went last night to several dozen nations to see if they were in a position to define a little further how they might fit together and where they might contribute,” said spokesman Richard Boucher.

Most of those now being consulted are from the 58 nations that had shown interest in participating in the relief, reconstruction and stabilization works in Iraq.

“Among the countries who expressed an interest in participating, there were some who indicated a possibility that they might contribute in the security area. So we went back to those governments and said let’s try to define a little more detail how this might work, said Mr Boucher.

Commenting on reports that the United States has already decided to keep Germany, France and Turkey out of this force, Mr Boucher said no such decision had yet been taken. “I don’t think we’ve decided — who’s in, who’s out. We’ve looked around for a number of countries to see who would be interested in making a contribution. We’ve been in dialogue with a number of governments.”

Mr Boucher said it was not yet decided whether this force would work independently or under the UN supervision.