"We've got 19 countries on the ground, we've got commitment from another 19," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

At the hearing, which aimed to draw lessons learned from recent US military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rumsfeld and recently retired General Tommy Franks who until earlier this week led US Central Command, agreed with various members of the panel that the postwar reconstruction must include a broad array of nations.

"Italy and Spain have both made commitments," said Rumsfeld who said he expected additional deployments of foreign troops beginning in September.

In addition, "We have made a request to France and Germany," the US defense secretary said -- made by Deputy Secetary of state Paul Wolfowitz in January, before the war began.

"Our goal is to get a large number of international forces from a lot of countries, including those two," he said.

"We have made requests to something like 70, 80 or 90 countries," Rumsfeld said.

Internationalization is increasingly seen as a way of not only defraying the mounting cost of US military operations in Iraq, but stemming the daily attacks US soldiers there have encountered.

"I would hope that internationalization would serve to reduce the threat to US forces in more ways than reducing the quantity of US forces on the ground," said Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

"Up until now we have been the main target ... because we are the ones who brought down Saddam's regime," said the Michigan Democrat, who has been a main critic of the military operation in Iraq.

It would be hard for loyalists to deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein "to sustain attacks on forces wearing NATO or UN patches on their shoulders, because it would be dramatized to the people of Iraq that this is not a US-British operation, but an international effort," Levin said.

He was one of a number of Congress members who had criticized defense officials for not making more strenuous efforts to share the burdens of occupation with other nations.

"The whole world has a stake in the stability of Iraq. It is a mystery to me why the administration has not reached out to NATO and the UN," Levin said.

"Their support could bring significant additional forces, such as German and French forces through NATO and Indian and Egyptian forces through a UN endorsement.

"I believe it is critically important to attempt to internationalize the security and nation building efforts. I believe it is critically important to see NATO and United Nations support and endorsement," Levin added.

Rumsfeld said US military commitments in Iraq total nearly four billion dollars per month, while monthly US military spending in Aghanistan comes to about 950 million dollars.

WAR.WIRE