Warsaw: Iraq could be divided into four military sectors rather than three, one of which would be under Polish control, Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said on May 5, Polish public television reported.

Poland could administer the North or the South-Central sector between Iraq's second city Basra and the capital Baghdad, the Minister said following meetings at the Pentagon in Washington.

He said the exact limits of the sectors had not yet been decided.

"Each sector should have between 7,000 and 9,000 soldiers. The number of Polish soldiers has not yet been determined," Szmajdzinski said.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said in French daily 'Le Monde' that Warsaw planned to send at least 1,500 troops to Iraq to help administer one of the newly established military sectors into which the war-battered country may be divided.

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Washington is said to be formulating a post-war "stabilisation" plan for Iraq that would carve it into three military sectors, each controlled by one of the partners that backed the US-led invasion of the oil-rich country.

Initial discussions of the plan have made clear it would give initial control of the sectors to the United States, Britain and Poland. The United Nations would not be consulted and the plan would entirely by- pass France, Germany, Russia and other nations that opposed the war.

Agencies