In the last few months, India has been one of the major suppliers of manpower for back-end and supply functions for US military forces in Kuwait and Iraq. Various travel agencies across India have recruited a whole range of military support staff, including chefs, kitchen assistants, service assistants, camp supervisors, mess supervisors, accountants, financial supervisors and bus drivers.

But the Kerala government has rejected a request from the United Nations to impart training to Iraqi nationals at the state's police academy, based in Thrissur.

The A K Antony government received the proposal, routed through the Union home ministry, two months ago.

Since the government seemed reluctant, the police top brass suggested an alternative: why not send a team of top police officials to Jordan to train the Iraqis?

Sources in the state police said that the department informally tipped off some key officials to get ready for assignments in Jordan. "At least a dozen police officers applied as they think it is a prestigious assignment," a senior officer said.

But after going through the proposal, the Antony government rejected it.

Kerala Police Academy director Alexander Jacob told rediff.com that the UN request was sent to Kerala because the police academy that 'we run is one of the finest in the country'. It has trained personnel for countries like Sri Lanka, Kenya, Singapore and Bhutan.

In 2002, it trained the largest number of women police constables — 490 in a single batch - in India. During a rigid nine-month training course, not even a single candidate dropped out.

Kerala's women police force is one of the most 'highly educated' ones in the country. The 2002 batch had 34 double post-graduates, 64 post-graduates and 344 graduates.