NATO says weighing Iraqi request for T72 tanks

BAGHDAD, June 29 (Reuters) NATO is considering a request to supply Iraq with 70 Russian-made T72 tanks, an official said today, while Iraqi state television said an offer for 120 T72 tanks was already on the table.

A public information officer for the NATO training and equipment mission in Iraq said no decision had yet been taken.

''That request has been sent to the (NATO member) nations.

Now we are awaiting their response. No offer has been finalised,'' said Herdis Sigurgrimsdottir of the NATO mission.

State-owned Iraqiya television said that the offer was made during a recent meeting in Rome between Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim and senior NATO officials.

A Iraqi defence ministry source who spoke on the condition of anonymity also said that NATO had made the tank offer, but could give no further details.

NATO has for several years been providing the Iraqi army with equipment, mostly ex-Soviet and mostly from former Warsaw pact members. Earlier this month it said it would add gendarme paramilitary courses to the training that it does in Iraq.

The Iraqi Army has been completely reorganised since the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, but complains it is still short of equipment, particularly heavy armour.

Saddam's army had over 4,000 mainly T72 tanks before the first Gulf war in 1991. But this number had been reduced to around 500 by the end of that conflict, according to US defence department estimates. Those that remained were extensively destroyed in the second Gulf war in 2003.

REUTERS SKB KP2010