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New Delhi: Rejecting the Opposition charge that India was under US pressure to send troops to Iraq, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on July 23 told the Lok Sabha that India was looking for a "more explicit" UN mandate to consider the issue.

Replying to a spate of supplementaries on the US request and whether government had sought a UN Security Council resolution on deployment of troops in Iraq, he also dismissed Opposition allegation that government had violated the unanimous Parliament resolution on Iraq. "The Parliament resolution is sacrosanct."

Opposition members, including P R Dasmunsi (Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Rupchand Pal (Communist Party of India - Marxist) and Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti), charged the government with flouting the Parliament resolution by even agreeing to consider the US request when American and British occupation forces were still present in Iraq.

The resolution had deplored the US-led war on Iraq and sought immediate withdrawal of these forces.

On his recent telephonic talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sinha said he was asked whether India would be prepared to send troops if there was a "broader UN mandate".

Sinha said he conveyed to Powell that India was "clearly looking for a more explicit UN mandate" to consider the issue.

"Let me state in clear and categorical terms that India is not under pressure from anyone and India does not function under pressure," the External Affairs Minister said, adding if the US makes a request it should not be construed as pressure.

"We should not lose our self-confidence," he said while asking the Opposition to shed the US "ghost" from their mindset.

"Government of India has decided, after careful consideration, that it could consider deployment of troops in Iraq, were there to be an explicit UN mandate for the purpose," Sinha said.

PTI