In what is sure to cheer up the US administration, the Turkish parliament on Tuesday passed a motion that allows peacekeeping troops to be sent to Iraq.

The move could lead to the first contingent of Muslim peacekeepers being sent to Iraq.

The parliament backed the deployment with 358 votes in favour and 183 against.

The motion gives the government the authority to send troops for a year.

According to CNN, the Iraqi Governing Council drafted a statement condemning any such deployment.

Many Iraqis, particularly Kurds, distrust Turkey, the main remnant of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled what is now Iraq.

The US has been desperate to have foreign troops in Iraq in order to pull out its soldiers, who have faced guerrilla-style attacks ever since the end of major hostilities in the Arab country.

It had also requested India to contribute troops, but the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had rejected the request.