Moscow, July 18: Russia is prepared to consider sending peacekeepers to Iraq under the aegis of UN Security Council, a foreign ministry spokesman said today. "I believe it would be possible if the UN Security Council were to approve such a resolution," spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.

"The issue must be examined closely," he said, adding however that "in my view the time is not yet ripe." Russia strongly opposed military action by a US-led coalition to topple the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein without United Nations backing and has refused until now to send troops to join reconstruction forces in Iraq.

Yakovenko stressed that Russia "is not considering any participation by our peacekeepers in the current coalition force in Iraq." Given the lack of stable new institutions in Iraq, the spokesman added that "the task of establishing lasting stability in Iraq requires a new decision," the Ria Novosti news agency reported.

The creation this week of a governing council in Iraq was a "first step towards creating a truly legitimate and internationally recognised authority," Ria Novosti quoted him as saying.

Russia "hopes the process of restoring Iraq's social-economic infrastructure will move forward as quickly as possible with the active participation of the international community, in the first instance the United Nations," Yakovenko said. Bureau Report