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Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

New York: Observing that he would "love to have Indian troops" in Iraq, US President George W Bush has said that he would speak to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee about it when they meet on September 24 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Bush said he could empathise with Vajpayee's "reluctance" to deploy troops in the light of upcoming elections in the country.

"I would love to have Indian troops but he (Vajpayee) has a problem with it. He has an election coming up and I understand his problem," Bush was quoted as saying by ethnic "India Abroad" newspaper.

The US President said he has not given up on India to send troops to the war-ravaged nation.

In an apparent reference to the Prime Minister's peace initiative with Pakistan, the newspaper said Bush described Vajpayee as a "good man, a courageous man".

Asked if he would visit India in the event of being re-elected in 2004, he said, "Yes, I would like to go (there) before the elections. It's a great country... It's one of the first trips I will make if re- elected."

Ahead of his address to the UNGA, he indicated that his idea of a larger role for the UN in Iraq was overseeing an election. "That would be deemed as a larger role (for the UN)," he told Fox News in another interview.

PTI