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<p>Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that the United States has given up hope of getting Indian soldiers to help coalition forces secure Iraq, but said he was optimistic countries would contribute troops after a U.N. resolution.</p> <p>"The Indians, they have indicated they would not be in a position to provide troops. And I don't expect that position to change," Powell said in an interview on the television news channel CNN.</p>

India says no to Iraq force, too busy in Kashmir NEW DELHI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - India cannot send soldiers to help U.S. forces in Iraq because it it too busy fighting Islamic rebels in Kashmir, a senior Indian defence official said on Friday. "The ground situation in the northwest sector (Kashmir) is such that we cannot afford to send our military personnel at this point of time," he told Reuters. "But this is not a flat no." The United States has asked for a division -- 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers -- to help its forces in Iraq.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India says it will not send peacekeeping troops to Iraq without a United Nations mandate, rejecting a request from Washington for help in the war-torn nation. The decision came after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist coalition government failed to build a domestic consensus in support of sending troops to Iraq, an old friend of India. New Delhi had earlier opposed the U.S.-led war against Iraq. "Were there to be an explicit U.N. mandate for the purpose, the government of India could consider the deployment of our troops in Iraq," foreign minister Yashwant Sinha told...