IRAQ - Aug. 13 - US Rejects Expanding UN Role.

US administration officials say Washington abandons the idea of giving the UN more of a role in the occupation as sought by France, India and other countries as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping. Instead, the US officials say, Washington will widen its effort to enlist other countries to assist the occupation forces, which are dominated by the 139,000 US troops. In addition to US forces, there are 21,000 troops representing 18 countries. At present, 11,000 of that number are from the UK. The US plans to seek larger numbers to help, especially with relief supplies that are coming from another dozen countries. US administration officials said that in spite of the difficult security situation, there was a consensus in the US administration that it would be better to work with these countries than to involve the UN or countries that opposed the war and are now eager to exercise influence in a post-war Iraq. A US administration official said: "The [US] administration is not willing to confront going to the [UN] Security Council and saying, 'We really need to make Iraq an international operation'. You can make a case that it would be better to do that, but, right now, the situation in Iraq is not that dire". The US administration's position could complicate its hopes of bringing a large number of US troops home soon. The length of the US occupation depends on how quickly the country can be stabilised and attacks and uprisings brought under control.