Islamabad: Pakistan may send "volunteers" to Iraq to guard the UN installations instead of regular troops, Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad said today (July 17, 2004).

The Government could send some "volunteers" to Iraq for the protection of the United Nations' installations, he told in Rawalpindi.

However there is no such decision as yet in this regard, he said.

"We don't want to receive coffins of our troops and as such question of sending military troops to Iraq doesn't arise," Ahmad said when asked if there was any plan of sending troops to Iraq.

Referring to the appointment of Ashraf Jehangir Qazi as the UN Secretary General's special representative to Iraq, he said "this is a matter of pride for Pakistan."

Asked about comments by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage two days ago during this visit here that all terrorist camps in Pakistan have not been closed down, he said the US official's remarks should be taken in the same way as the American intelligence agencies reported over the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which proved totally wrong.

"All what is said about the presence of terror training camps in Pakistan is part of well-designed propaganda which is false and malicious," he said.