Egypt will not send troops to Iraq in response to a Saudi proposal that Arab and Islamic forces replace US and allied forces, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Wednesday.
"Egypt's position on sending forces to Iraq is clear. It rejects sending any forces there," he told reporters.
"What has been brought up about sending Arab and Islamic forces is merely a proposal which the American side and the Arab parties are still looking at."
Egypt has repeatedly said it has no plans to send troops to Iraq, although it has discussed with the new Iraqi government the possibility of training some Iraqi police in Egypt.
Cairo made its position on sending troops clear after armed opponents of the Iraqi government kidnapped an Egyptian diplomat last month. The kidnappers demanded that Egypt stop security co-operation with Iraq but they released the diplomat unharmed.
Saudi Arabia subsequently floated its proposal, which has received a cool response from some of the likely candidates. Pakistan, Malaysia, Algeria, Bangladesh and Morocco have been mentioned as possible contributors.
The Arab League has said Arab troops should not go to Iraq while the country remains under de facto foreign occupation and without a clear UN mandate.
Meanwhile, Malaysia also announced on Wednesday that it would not send troops to Iraq for now but may change its mind if the security situation improved.
"It is better for us to wait for a while and to see how the situation is," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told a news conference.
"At the moment, we are not sending and we are considering the proposal put forward by the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister," Abdullah said, who also heads the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
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