Jordan "will not send forces to Iraq", Bashir told AFP on the second day of the meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), a grouping of 57 Muslim countries.

"We will not send any soldiers to Iraq and we are against the presence of military forces from neigbouring countries in Iraq," added Bashir, who heads the Jordanian delegation to the Istanbul meeting.

Bashir was responding to comments by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that Arab states should take part in a multinational force in the war-torn country, alongside NATO forces.

"If on the basis of the UN Security Council resolution the government in Baghdad asks NATO to play a role, we are not going to shut the door in its face. That would not be correct," de Scheffer said in an interview published in Wednesday's edition of the French newspaper Le Monde.

Delegates from the other neighbours of Iraq -- Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey -- also said there had always been an understanding none of Iraq's neighbours would send soldiers there.

An Arab minister told AFP on condition of anonymity that Iraq was categorically opposed to allowing forces from neighbouring countries onto its soil, but could allow soldiers from other Arab countries to serve in a multi-national peacekeeping force alongside NATO soldiers.

"If some Arab countries want to participate in a such a force, they can as long as they are not neighbours of Iraq," the minister said.

Turkey, a predominantly Muslim non-Arab nation and staunch US ally, was the only one among Iraq's neighbours with plans to deploy troops to Iraq.

But the government was forced to abandon the project last year after the United States failed to overcome stern opposition from the Iraqi leadership and, especially Iraqi Kurds, to the plan.

WAR.WIRE