The United Nations has rejected a request from the Commonwealth Secretariat to stop using Fiji troops in its peacekeeping missions.

The Fijilive news website said Tuesday the Commonwealth secretary general, Don McKinnon, asked the new UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, to stop using Fiji troops because of last year's military coup.

McKinnon used the "ethical issue" of paying hundreds of Fiji troops as peacekeepers in Iraq and elsewhere.

But Ban is quoted as having told McKinnon that the UN needs the Fiji peacekeepers.

About 300 Fiji troops guard UN facilities in Iraq.

McKinnon's request to the UN to stop using Fiji troops followed similar requests by the New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark, and the Australia foreign minister, Alexander Downer.

Both those requests were rebuffed, said Fijilive.

Source: Xinhua