United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today it would be very difficult for UN peacekeepers to replace US-led troops at some stage in Iraq, but he did not rule it out.
Asked if security operations in Iraq could eventually be transferred to UN peacekeepers, Mr Annan said this posed a "real problem".
"Will the UN get the right troops, and the troops they need to go to Iraq to do the right amount of work?" he told a security conference in Munich, Germany.
"You've had a very robust presence. If it is going to be followed by a weak, ill-equipped force, it brings its own problems. But of course if the (Security) Council, in its wisdom, were to decide that we go this route, obviously we would have to consider."