-->Aus einem Washington Newsletter:

The United States has asked more than a dozen countries to join a new international military force to protect the United Nations in Iraq, according to late reports from Washington tonight.

Bush Admin has approached France, which led opposition to the war in Iraq, as well as India, Pakistan and other nations that were reluctant to join the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Iraq.

The list includes 'a good global mix,' said a State Department official familiar with the proposed force.

But no Arab countries or neighbors of Iraq are on the list, with Turkey notably absent.

The new force is considered essential to the fragile political transition because the Bush administration is relying on the United Nations to return to Iraq to help organize elections after the occupation ends on June 30.

The U.N. mission is likely to include activities - such as assistance with a census, voter registration, civic education and training in the run-up to an election, as well as monitoring the polls by the year's end - in places where even the current coalition is not deployed, U.S. officials said.

'Potentially there could be a lot more places that forces would have to go. This is an innovative process. None of us has done this before.' [/b]