New Delhi: India has warned that a prolonged conflict in Iraq could strengthen the feeling of injustice in the Arab world and those at the receiving end of terrorism have to be more careful in planning for the future.

It also favoured a UN dispensation in the post-conflict Iraq saying the most important issue after the end of the war is the territorial integrity of Iraq.

Asked in an interview by Saeed Naqvi for 'World Report' programme on Doordarshan whether the sense of national humiliation in Arabs would feed the forces of terrorism, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said, "It surely will be because there is a feeling of humiliation and longer the conflict lasts the stronger will be the feeling of injustice and that will certainly breed its own reaction. I think all of us who have been at the receiving end of terrorism have to be, therefore, far more careful in planning for the future than has been the case so far."

To a question on US Secretary Of State Colin Powell's statement that Gen Tommy Franks will be the administrator in Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, Sinha said there were indications that US and the United Kingdom could be planning something of this kind.

"It appears to us that the most important issue that will face post-conflict Iraq is the issue of territorial integrity. It is quite clear that, therefore, any kind of a weak regime in Iraq may not be the right thing to do in order to be able to get...maintain the territorial integrity of Iraq. But our preference clearly will be for a UN dispensation."

PTI