"At the present time, we are not in a position to commit Indian troops," said Singh at a joint press conference with Blair at Downing Street, where the two leaders reviewed the situation in Iraq.

He added, however, that India has offered to retrain Iraqi police officers and those involved in humanitarian work, and to assist with "rehabilitation and reconstruction" efforts.

Besides Iraq, Blair and Singh were to cover a range of issues, including trade, global warming and disputed Kashmir.

Climate change is one of the main planks of Britain's chairmanship of the Group of Eight leading industrialised democracies next year, which does not include nations such as India.

Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf are due to have talks on Kashmir on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the control of Kashmir, which they hold in part but claim in full.

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.