U.S. downplays India's choice of not sending troops to Iraq

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U.S. defense officials yesterday brushed off India's decision to not send 15,000 or more troops to Iraq to help the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to restructure the shattered country.

To date, Britain and Poland have joined with countries around the world to offer roughly 13,000 troops to help the United States secure and rebuild the nation.

"We have more than a dozen countries on the ground today, we have more than a dozen countries who will contribute in the near future, and we have yet another dozen with whom we are talking about possible contributions," one defense official said.

"We are optimistic that we will have significant international contributions," he said.

But the State Department was clearly disappointed with New Delhi's decision.

"We would have hoped that India would have made a different choice -- that they would be there," spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Defense officials had spoken of the possibility of a third international division to aid the coalition effort, which currently is heavily tilted toward the United States and coming under lethal attacks by Iraqi paramilitary forces.

India, loath to be seen as part of an occupation force in Iraq, announced yesterday it would not deploy troops to Iraq without an explicit United Nations mandate.

"Our longer-term national interest, our concern for the people of Iraq, our long-standing ties with the Gulf region, as well as our growing dialogue and strengthened ties with the U.S., have been key elements in this consideration," Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters after a two-hour meeting of the Cabinet's security committee.