"There's a good 10-year mandate, I believe, for a human rights presence in Iraq," Claudio Cordone, senior director for international law for the London-based human rights group said.

But Amnesty is worried because it said that a first draft resolution criticising human rights violations in Iraq, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Commission later this month, does not mention monitors.

The resolution was drawn up primarily by the European Union and other European countries.

"We think it would be fairly extraordinary just at a time when they would be particularly needed, and just at the time when it may be feasible to actually deploy them, that all of a sudden the Commission drops them," Cordone added.

The 53-member UN Commission is due to complete its annual six-week meeting here on April 25.

It debates and votes on resolutions highlighting human rights violations around the world.

Amnesty said the monitors should come from the United Nations, and be based throughout the country.

As well as helping to provide protection on the ground, they could also offer long-term expertise to reform Iraq's legal and judicial system, he said.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights wants to send 14 monitors -- five international staff and four Iraqis to be based in Baghdad, and five other international staff to accompany UN humanitarian teams around the country -- as soon as it is safe enough.

Spokesman Jose-Luis Diaz said the step could made independently of the UN Human Rights Commission, and was "part of the overall UN response to the crisis now".

It has appealed for about 1.6 million dollars to fund its role in the UN's response to the current crisis in Iraq over the next six months.

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