Maintaining that the United Nations resolution on Iraq has certain 'grey areas', India has said that  'unresolved ambiguities' in the document have to be clarified before it can decide on sending its troops to that country. 

"If it was a straight UN request for troops, India would have had no difficulty at all in responding to the request," Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, who has held extensive discussions with top US officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, in the last two days, said

"Normally India has responded to UN mandates. But since there are grey areas, it is necessary for India to be very careful in what she does," he added.

"The US clearly understands what the issues are and what the difficulties are. The US understands that India is a democratic country and she has public and political opinion. Any decision that is taken in India must have a political consensus behind it," he said.

Sibal, who also met Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman, however, asserted, "Whether India sends troops or not, it will not affect Indo-American relations, which are growing closer."

He also said that there was no pressure on the issue by the Americans during his talks.

"Therefore, whatever decision India takes, I don't think it will have an adverse effect on our relations, because our relationship is growing in every area and the equities in the relationship are now many. We are on the way to developing an increasingly cooperative relationship and no single issue will determine the quality of our relationship," Sibal said.

"You would also come to the conclusion," said Sibal, "that there are certain areas on which it is not easy to give clarifications because it is a fast-moving, uncertain situation and it is a difficult situation. All this is known to everybody. There is no road map. Unless a road map gets developed, it is difficult. Frankly, there are no deadlines imposed. As I said earlier, there is no pressure."

Asked whether the Americans have been able to convince him that India should send troops to Iraq, Sibal said, "That is not the right approach. They have proposed to India that she contribute to the stabilisation force a division of Indian troops. India is examining this."

A decision was taken in Delhi after the American request was received to evaluate the present situation in its entirety. In this connection, it was decided that the Indian ambassador should return to Iraq and give New Delhi a report on the situation. He is currently in Iraq.

A second decision that was taken was to have interaction with the coalition authority in order to get an assessment from them about the situation and that Indian officials should also talk to Iraqi leaders for their assessment of the situation.

In legal terms, the Security Council describes the coalition forces as occupation troops.

Asked whether Indian troops, if sent, would part of the occupation troops, Sibal said: "That is not the way we look at it."

There are various elements that have to be considered, said Sibal. "One is India's long-term interests in Iraq; secondly India's interests in the region as a whole because she has a large number of people there and this is a source of 70 per cent of its oil and a large volume of remittances."

"India has also traditional religious, cultural and other connections with this region. The other is our bilateral relations with the United States. This has to be taken into account. The command and control, funding, law and order and security situation on the ground, terms of the engagement mandate, and then the association of the UN and the views the Iraqi people and those of the neighbouring countries are the other factors," he said.

PTI