New York: Warning that Iraq could become a "new centre" of all "destructive elements", Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the United States to quickly restore sovereignty to Iraqis and secure a new United Nations resolution, clearly defining how long international forces would remain there.

The invasion of Iraq had "created a terrorist haven", which did not exist previously and the country could "become a new centre, a new magnet of all destructive elements", Putin said in an interview to 'The New York Times' published on October 6.

He said a "great number of members of terrorist organisations" have been drawn into the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein and now "the coalition forces received two enemies at once – both the remains of the Saddam regime, who fight with them, and those who Saddam himself had fought in the past – the fundamentalists".

The Russian President, the 'Times' said, did not identify the militants entering Iraq, but he said they came "from all the Muslim world".

PTI