PRIME Minister Tony Abbott suggested sending 3500 troops to Iraq so Australia could combat the Islamic State terrorist group alone, a new report has found.

A Weekend Australian investigation has found that Mr Abbott pitched the idea at a meeting attended by his chief of staff Peta Credlin in Canberra on November 25.

The paper says that after he received no resistance from Ms Credlin or other members of his staff, he raised the idea with Australia’s military officials.

The Weekend Australian report says that Mr Abbott was told that a unilateral push from Australia would make it the only country with troops on the ground in Iraq.

The officials told the prime minister that it would be disastrous for the 3500 Australian soldiers to be in Iraq fighting ISIS without support from the US or NATO.

A spokesman for Mr Abbott told the Weekend Australian: “The Prime Minister has consistently said that the Australian government will continue to talk to the government of Iraq and to our ­coalition partners about what Australia can usefully do to make the world a safer place and to make Australia a safer country.”

The reported suggestion by Mr Abbott to send Australian troops to Iraq is likely to call into question his judgment having just survived a motion for a leadership spill.

TONY ABBOTT SOUGHT MILITARY ADVICE ON GO-IT-ALONE INVASION OF IRAQ