The Philippine government might consider redeploying the troops to Iraq after the country finishes the election in January 2005, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said Wednesday in Manila.

Romulo, who just came back from New York for the UN general assembly, said at a press conference that it was the general sentiment at the assembly that the situation in Iraq would stabilize after its election.

Romulo said that most of the world leaders thought of sending a humanitarian contingent to Iraq after the January election, the first since a US-led coalition ousted president Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Meanwhile, the secretary clarified that his American counterparts in the State Department did not refer to the "bump" in the US-Philippine relations caused by the pullout of the Philippine humanitarian contingent in Iraq ahead of scheduled timefor the release of a Filipino trunk driver, Angelo de la Cruz, from Iraqi militants.

"They are eager to see how to continue the levels of trade and investment they do with the Philippines," Romulo said.

On speculation that the Filipino troops would be sent back to Iraq, military earlier said that it had prepared a battalion of soldiers in case the government makes this decision under the mandate of United Nations.

Around 500 men can depart Philippines anytime in case the national government gives the green light to the deployment in Iraq, the military said.

However, the military said that the deployment needs a political decision so "we will just abide by any directive coming from our political leaders."

The Filipino peacekeepers began to be deployed in Iraq in September as part of US-led coalition of willing that supported the US-led invasion of Iraq and were pulled out on July 19 as the way to resolve the hostage crisis.

As a result, Washington declared that the Philippines had been dropped from the US-led 33-member "coalition of the willing" as itand its allies adopted a common policy of an unequivocal rejectionof terrorism and refusal to bow to any demands made by Iraqi abductors.

However, Philippine Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert clarified that the country still remains a member of the coalition in Iraq led by the United Nations not the Unites States.

She said that the current coalition in Iraq is the one governedby UN Security Council Resolution 1,546 issued on June 8, which isa "historic resolution that healed the divisions over Iraq."

Source: Xinhua