Pakistan to send troops to Iraq only under UN banner

Despite requests from the United States and Britain to contribute to a stabilisation force, he said Pakistan does "not want to be perceived as an extension of the occupation force."

"We are waiting for the emergence of a consensus in the international community," he told AFP at a meeting here ahead of a summit of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

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"As of this moment, a consensus has not yet been arrived at. I hope that it will be," he said.

"We want to be perceived as friends of the people of Iraq, as people who are invited to go there.

"So the minimum requirement after a UN resolution is that Pakistan does not go alone, that there are other Muslim countries and it will be much better if we are invited by some established Iraqi authority."

Kasuri said Pakistan had no plans to make a formal request for the OIC to send troops to Iraq as a collective effort but it would "talk informally to other Muslim countries" once a UN resolution was approved.

The United States has so far appealed for military help from three Muslim countries -- Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey.

Bangladesh echoed Pakistan's position, with Foreign Minister Morshed Khan telling reporters here that his country would only send troops "if the UN gets a central role under the UN blue helmets."