The United States and Saudi Arabia Wednesday discussed a possible formation of a Muslim or Arab force to be dispatched to Iraq, said reports reaching Riyadh from Jeddah.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal disclosed it at a joint news conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell, while asked about the prospect of dispatching Arab or Muslim troops to war-torn Iraq.

"We had preliminary discussions, and we will be having further discussions later on," Faisal told the reporters, giving no further details.

Powell declined to comment on the issue. But a senior US official said that Washington is interested in the idea, adding any Muslim force that goes to Iraq would serve as a supplement to the US-led coalition force.

Powell arrived in the kingdom earlier in the day as part of his Middle East and European tour, which took him to Hungary and Egypt and will also take him to Kuwait and Poland.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2004)