26 Oct 2016

Video: Andrew Little on Iraq

9:24 am on 26 October 2016

"Contributing to civil reconstruction and internal peace and order - there may well be something useful we can contribute to that," Mr Little told RNZ's Guyon Espiner.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee, in Paris for a meeting of 13 countries in the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State, said the New Zealand contingent would eventually switch from training Iraqi troops to training local police.

Mr Little said the Iraqi army was making only a small contribution to the eventual security of the country and Mr Brownlee was right that the next phase was going to be the most important.