The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has welcomed the announcement of a multilateral force for Afghanistan but believes it must have the support of the Afghan people.
Mrs Mary Robinson said: "It is a matter for the Irish Government if Irish troops participate but certainly it is necessary to have support on the ground, the support of the Afghan people."
She hoped it would be Afghan-led and that the "multilateral force will hopefully work with an Afghan developing police and security force as quickly as possible".
While in Dublin, she said: "I certainly welcome the multilateral force and hope it will be on the ground very quickly." It was an unstable situation and difficult to get humanitarian assistance "to a desperate population".
The UN commissioner added that "the situation for the civilian population in Afghanistan has worsened with the military campaign and we need security on the ground".
On the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Mrs Robinson was asked about the US veto of a UN resolution to send independent monitors to the West Bank. She reiterated "my own very strong view that it would be important to have monitors on the ground.
"It's a very small space with, in Gaza, over a million people and it's frightening to see the dangers, the lack of human security, the children who are killed, the fear that people live in.
"It is also of great concern the fear of the Israeli people and the terrible suicide bombings which are not justified under any circumstances."
Asked about the US response and the perception it had turned its back on any attempt to broker peace, Mrs Robinson said she would rather "put it in the sense of how important it is to try to facilitate getting back to talking, to negotiation, to building a difficult peace process".
She added: "We saw in the context of Northern Ireland how necessary it was to have outside facilitators. Both the people in the occupied territories, the Palestinians and the Israeli people, need outside facilitation. They are very locked in a difficult situation.
"So I hope that the United States, Europe and countries of the region - Egypt, Jordan - will all continue to have a close, supportive, facilitating, urging of the need to get back to the negotiating table."
She had received reports of colleagues in offices in Gaza and Ramallah. "We're very worried about their human security, their safety. That's just one small indication of how grave the situation is."
