US Senate calls for NATO, UN troops to Iraq

US Secretary of State Colin Powell for his part conceded he was uncertain how responsive allies would be to sending troops into Iraq to back Washington and London.

In a 97-0 vote, senators said President George W. Bush "should consider requesting formally and expeditiously that NATO raise a force for deployment in post-war Iraq similar to what it has done in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo."

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"We need more forces... and we have to make it clear that we're not a force of occupation," said Senator Joseph Biden, top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"There's a need to internationalize this and to bring in NATO in particular," he added.

Meanwhile final negotiations were taking place here on the formation of a transitional governing council for Iraq, which is expected to be announced within days.

Likely raising fears among Democrats of a drawn-out and costly post-war stay in Iraq, Franks, who masterminded the three-week war to topple Saddam Hussein, said it would be unwise to think difficulties faced by the coalition "will go away in one month or two months or three months."

"I anticipate we'll be involved in Iraq in the future," Franks told the House Armed Services Committee Thursday. "Whether that means two years or four years, I don't know."

On the ground, US troops stationed at a presidential palace in the flashpoint town of Ramadi came under mortar fire for the third night in a row, witnesses said.

A military spokesman said Friday a US tank fired a shell for the first time since the war was declared over on May 1 during the clashes.

Sergeant Amy Abbott in Baghdad said there were no US casualties, and there was no report on any Iraqi casualties.

Qatar's al-Jazeera channel for its part said clashes with unknown assailants in two parts of the Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, went on until dawn and that US helicopter gunships fired towards the assailants.

Amid the unstable security situation, Powell cautioned late Thursday against illusions about the amount of help the US-British coalition would get from allies, in contrast to more upbeat statements recently from US defense officials.

"I can't give you the exact number of nations or how many troops are going to be committed," Powell said, appearing on a CNN program.

"The guts of the work will still have to be done by the United States, Great Britain and the original members of the coalition," he conceded.

For its part, the newspaper USA Today poured cold water Thursday on expectations of quick foreign help, saying many nations were "balking" at jumping into the Iraqi cauldron with both feet.

It said India, Pakistan and Portugal, which the Pentagon had hoped would deliver between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers, were now insisting that the United Nations approve a UN mandate for the force first.

The Indian government has been mulling deployment of troops to Iraq following a request by Washington but has been unable to take a decision due to political opposition.