The United States, seizing on the bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, is preparing a Security Council resolution that will urge other nations to send troops and aid to secure Iraq, according to Bush administration officials.

The resolution will allow the American military to maintain control over any international forces in Iraq -- something the Pentagon has insisted on, the officials told the New York Times.

The administration hopes that the resolution, if adopted, would encourage nations like India, Pakistan and Turkey to contribute troops by providing some sort of UN cover to the American operation.

The diplomatic manoeuvring, the paper said, suggests that some officials in the administration, particularly in the state department, believe that the bombing demonstrates that military reinforcements are needed.

But an Indian diplomat was quoted as saying that he was not sure what the response would be in New Delhi.

"Obviously, our government will have to see the wording of any new resolution to see if it is in line with our thinking," the diplomat, who was not identified, said.

There are now 139,000 American troops in Iraq and 21,700 troops from other countries.

Some experts say it is unrealistic to think that Iraq can be secured with troops at the current level. A debate over this subject, the paper said, flared in May, when General Eric K Shinseki, the then army chief of staff, said hundreds of thousands would be needed for the job.

The paper quoted James F Dobbins, an expert in peacekeeping operations who was the Bush administration's special envoy to Afghanistan, as saying the US might need 300,000-500,000 troops to maintain stability in the country.

"Whatever the right number is, it's significantly larger than what we have," Dobbins, Director of International Security and Defense Policy at the Rand Corporation, told the Times.

"But let's face it, we're going to be driven by what can be deployed rather than what the situation calls for."

Pentagon regards India, Turkey and Pakistan as potential contributors of additional forces. India, which opposed the war in Iraq, has refused to troops without UN authority over the operations.

An American official told the Times that those countries might be looking for some way to help, and that a strong UN resolution citing the dire conditions in Iraq might bring a favourable decision.

Even if such a resolution is approved, the paper said it is not clear whether additional troops from other countries will lead to an overall increase in troops in Iraq, or merely enable the US to pull some of its troops out.

Administration officials said Secretary of State Colin Powell started preparing the new resolution on Tuesday, after the Baghdad bombing. Powell will travel to the UN on Thursday to confer with Secretary General Kofi Annan, about the new resolution, an American official said.

Along with the debate over troops, officials think wealthy countries in a position to provide assistance to Iraq are also reluctant to contribute without more authority being given to the UN.