The Russian Defense Ministry is not preparing to send peacekeep forces to Iraq, an official with the ministry said Monday.

"The Defense Ministry is not authorized to send peacekeepers to Iraq, neither has it been told to do so," the Interfax quoted Col. Nikolai Deryabin, head of the ministry's press service, as saying.

"This is a political matter, and only the national political administration has the authority to do this," he added.

Deryabin made the comment in response to press reports that Russian peacekeepers, including those withdrawn from the Balkans, would soon be sent to Iraq.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Friday that Russia is ready to consider sending peacekeepers to Iraq if UN Security Council approves such an initiative.

But Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov announced later that sending a Russian contingent to participate in the international peacekeeping force in Iraq is not on the agenda, stressing that such an action had to be underpinned by a UN Security Council resolution.

Russian participation is not currently under consideration because there is no Security Council resolution on the table, Ivanov said.

Russia has been strongly opposed the US-led war in Iraq against the regime of Saddam Hussein without United Nations' backing, and is not considering any participation by its peacekeepers in the current US-led coalition force in Iraq, according to Yakovenko.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2003)