"Algeria has never sent troops anywhere in the past. Nor will it do so this time," he said after meeting here with the United Nation's Iraq envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Belkhadem on Thursday met in Tunis with his Tunisian and Bahraini counterparts to hear a request by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on sending Muslim security forces into Iraq.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday said he welcomed a Saudi proposal of dispatching Arab or Muslim troops to Iraq to serve either as part of the US-led multinational force or separately.