The United States is looking into the possibility of securing a UN resolution which will make it easier for India to send its troops to Iraq, the top US civilian official in Iraq, L Paul Bremer, said today. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is looking into the possibility of getting a UN resolution ‘‘provided it can be done in a way that is useful and makes it easier for people like the Indians to provide troops and for other countries to provide troops,’’ Bremer said on NBC-TV. At present, there are 147,000 American troops and about 14,000 or so British troops in addition to 13,000 troops from 19 countries. The US was hoping for 17,000 Indian troops, and Britain has requested Pakistan to send a brigade of Pakistani troops and America has made a similar request to Pakistan, making a total of two brigades. If India sends 17,000, it will be the second largest contingent. Bremer said India, France and Germany, among others, have said that they can contribute militarily or financially or both if the request comes not from the occupation authorities of Britain and the US but from the UN.Thirty-seven nations have pledged $3 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq, he said. Bremer insisted that there is a security problem only in a ‘‘very small part’’ of Iraq — in Baghdad and other areas which were Saddam Hussein’s stronghold. The attacks on coalition troops, he said, are made by ‘‘bitter-ender, small remnants of the Hussein regime who are trying to turn the tide of history’’. In the last few weeks, he said, the coalition has seen a substantial increase in cooperation from the Iraqi people, much more than was the case a month or two ago. Bremer listed three steps the coalition is taking to improve the security situation: first, ‘‘we are going to raise an Iraqi civil defence corps; secondly, we are raising a 65,000-strong police force, thirdly, we are raising Iraqi border guards.’’ (PTI)
