KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Monday that it had received no request to contribute troops to a U.S.-led stabilization force in Iraq and knew of no commitment to do so.

Last week, the Bush administration named Ukraine among 10 European countries that had agreed to provide troops for a special military force to handle peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts in three regions of Iraq to stabilize the country.

However, Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantyn Khivrenko said the ministry would not commit any troops before receiving a request.

"First some country or international organization ... should ask Ukraine (to participate) ... nobody has asked Ukraine yet," Khivrenko told The Associated Press.

The U.S. embassy declined to confirm whether Washington asked Ukraine to join the force.

Military officials worked up plans for the stabilization force at a London conference last week attended by representatives of 16 countries, mostly NATO members.

The chairman of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council participated in the conference and was in Washington on Monday for meetings with U.S. and NATO representatives.

Leonid Polyakov, a military expert at the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies, a Kiev-based think-tank, said Ukraine's cash-strapped government would likely welcome the opportunity to contribute troops to curry favor with Washington.

"Ukraine is interested in a role in reconstruction projects and other lucrative business in Iraq and (this) could help provide a chance to get good contracts," he said.

Both Kiev and Washington are seeking to smooth bilateral relations, strained since September when Washington claimed it verified the authenticity of a July 2000 recording in which President Leonid Kuchma is allegedly heard approving the sale of four Kolchuha radar systems to Iraq. Kuchma claims the war proved that there were no Kolchuhas in Iraq.

U.S.-Ukraine ties warmed after Kuchma defied widespread public opposition in agreeing to send a 450-man anti-chemical weapons battalion to Kuwait to neutralize a possible Iraqi attack. However, Ukraine opposed the U.S.-led war, insisted its force be limited to defensive and humanitarian missions and refused to allow its troops to join operations in Iraq.

The Defense Ministry comments about the stabilization force came after a public outcry followed the U.S. addition of Ukraine to the list of coalition countries.