Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has today called on Muslim nations to join a proposed force of Islamic troops in Iraq that the United States said might help protect the United Nations.
Mr Allawi and US Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Saudi Arabia and adopted a Saudi proposal for Arab and Muslim nations other than Iraq's immediate neighbours to provide troops to help secure Iraq in the face of a fierce insurgency.
The idea - surprising given the reluctance of Muslim and Arab nations to contribute so far - could shore up the US coalition and ease the need for US troops who make up the vast majority of the roughly 160,000 foreign forces in Iraq.
"This is a global war. These are forces of evil who are acting against us," Mr Allawi told reporters after he and Mr Powell met for about an hour. "I call upon the leaders of the Islamic countries and the Arab countries to close ranks."
A deployment by Muslim nations would be a public relations coup for the United States, which has seen the US-led coalition in Iraq reduced by the withdrawal of the Philippines, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras.
After a brief lull following the June 28th US handover of sovereignty, guerrillas, who do not recognise the authority of Iraq's interim government, have stepped up suicide car bombings, assassinations and kidnappings to try to undermine Mr Allawi and the US-led coalition.
In the latest violence, a minibus packed with explosives blew up near a police station and a market north of Baghdad yesterday, killing 70 people and wounding 30 in the worst attack since Washington transferred Iraqi sovereignty into the hands of Mr Allawi's government a month ago.
Mr Powell said a new Muslim force could serve as part of the coalition or as a partially independent separate entity. He also suggested the force could protect the United Nations, which pulled out of Iraq after a bombing destroyed its Baghdad headquarters and killed 22 people in August.
It was unclear if this would appeal to the Saudis, who envisage a Muslim contribution as replacing US forces.