23 Apr 2003

Fiji government keen to send peacekeepers to Iraq

7:38 am on 23 April 2003

The Fiji government is lobbying hard to send its troops for peacekeeping duties in post-war Iraq.

Radio Fiji reports this has been confirmed by the prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, who says high level contacts have been made with both the United Nations and the United States.

The Fiji government hopes to be part of the peacekeeping mission to assist the United Nations in the recovery and reconstruction of the war-torn country.

A battalion of Fiji troops who had been on UN peacekeeping duties in Lebanon since 1978 was withdrawn last December when their mandate ended.