US mulls creation of new int'l peacekeeping force

"We are having a dialogue with other elements of the government on this," said Col. Michael Dooley, acting director of the US Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, a military think-tank charged with studying post-combat operations in war-torn countries.

"At this point, we have only limited capability to assist. But we do have some thoughts on the subject and we're exchanging those thoughts and ideas with other elements of the government," he told Reuters in an interview this week.

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The Army had announced in January that it would close its Peacekeeping Institute, at the Army War College in Carlisle, in central Pennsylvania.

The Pentagon has since found itself facing a rising tide of deadly guerrilla attacks in Iraq that have claimed the lives of more Americans since May 1 than died during the six weeks of major combat operations before then.

Military analysts and sources at nongovernmental agencies say senior Bush administration officials, hard pressed by the difficulty of raising foreign troops for Iraq, have proposed creating a new international force consisting of troops from developing countries as well as the United States.

Washington suffered a new setback on Friday when Turkey said it would not help secure the country.

Some analysts and sources have suggested the force would be largely trained and supported by the United States and operate outside the purview of the United Nations or NATO.

Pentagon officials had no immediate comment on the issue.

Dooley did not elaborate.

"It comes down to resources -- who's going to assist others. Some countries have the desire but absolutely no resources," he said.

Preparation for post-combat Iraq is one thing the institute was in no position to help Army commanders with last spring. At the time, the 10-member, $1 million-a-year group, then known simply as the Peacekeeping Institute, was scheduled for elimination under a Pentagon cost-cutting initiative.

Critics blame the Bush administration for jettisoning any policy initiative imbued with Clinton-era notions of peacekeeping, nation building or multilateralism.

But soon after the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, US officials appeared caught unawares by widespread looting and lawlessness that dominated daily life in Baghdad.