New York, July 19: Refusal of countries, including India, France and Germany to contribute troops for stabilisation force in Iraq, rising cost of war and daily killings of American soldiers, are slowly forcing the Bush administration back to the United Nations which it spurned when it attacked Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein, media reports said today. India, The New York Times said, dealt the administration a sharp blow this week, refusing to send peacekeeping troops unless they operated under the auspices of the United Nations. The administration, which had lobbied New Delhi strenuously, had been hoping for a full division of 17,000 peacekeepers, which would have made India the second largest military presence in Iraq after the United States.
The administration had been particularly eager to enlist the Indians, because their presence is widely seen as a bell-weather for numerous other developing countries, the paper said.
Diplomats at the United Nations were discussing various options even though the Bush administration has yet to state its position on a possible new resolution that could lead to wider international involvement in the process of brining peace and stability to Iraq and in its reconstruction.
The Times said with the costs of stabilising Iraq hovering at 4 billion dollars a month and with American troops being killed at a steady rate, administration officials acknowledge that they are rethinking their strategy and may seek a United Nations resolution for help that would placate other nations, like India, France and Germany. Bureau Report