The United States administration, seizing on the bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, is preparing a new UN Security Council resolution to urge other nations to send troops and aid to secure Iraq, The New York Times newspaper reported Thursday.

But the new resolution would allow the American military to maintain its control over any international forces in Iraq, as the US defense ministry has insisted on, the newspaper quoted US officials as saying on Wednesday.

The Bush administration is hoping that a new resolution, which would provide some sort of United Nations cover to the US-led operation in Iraq, would encourage nations like India, Pakistan and Turkey to contribute troops, if it can be passed.

Up to now, those nations, and others, have balked at contributing troops without a UN resolution backing such a deployment.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Honduras on Wednesday that he saw no need to increase troops levels, at least for now, despite the bombing in Iraq which killed 20 people.

But the renewed diplomatic maneuvering for a new UN resolution suggested that some officials in the administration, particularly in the State Department, believe that the bombing against the UN headquarters in Baghdad on Wednesday demonstrates that military reinforcements are needed.

Some experts say it is unrealistic to think that Iraq can be secured with troops at the current level.

There are now 139,000 American troops in Iraq and 21,700 troops from other countries, half from Britain, a close ally in the Iraq war.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2003)