A UNITED NATIONS official said yesterday that Iraq’s recent parliamentary elections, which have given a strong lead to the Shi’ite religious bloc dominating the current government, were credible and that there was there was no justification in calls for a rerun.

A United Nations official today described contested elections for Iraq’s new parliament as transparent and credible, and said there was no justification in calls for a rerun.

Preliminary results released from ballots cast by expatriate Iraqis and an early vote carried out for soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners, showed a coalition of Kurdish parties and the main Shiite religious bloc each taking about a third of the vote.

Iraq’s leading Shiite religious bloc has said that it is ready to discuss Sunni Arab participation in a coalition government, while thousands of Sunni and secular Shiite demonstrators took to the streets claiming election fraud.

Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political coalition today challenged preliminary results from last week’s parliamentary elections and warned that any attempt to falsify the outcome could further destabilise the country.

IRAQ’S landmark constitution was adopted by a majority of voters during the country’s October 15 referendum, as Sunni Arab opponents failed to muster enough support to defeat it.

Iraq’s landmark constitution was adopted by a majority of voters during the country’s October 15 referendum, election officials said today.

US warplanes and helicopters bombed two western Iraq villages, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a weekend roadside blast, the military said today.

POLLING officials counted votes by candlelight last night as Iraq tallied its dead after an election which divided the country.

Iraqis danced in the streets as they cast their votes around the world on the first day of the Iraqi elections, organizers said Saturday.

Three militant groups warned Iraqis against voting in the January 30 elections, saying that people participating in the “dirty farce” risked attack.

CAR bombs rocked Iraq’s two holiest Shi’ite cities yesterday, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 120.

Car bombs rocked Iraq’s two holiest Shiite cities today, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 120, while in Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on car, killing three employees of the organisation running next month’s elections.

About 30 gunmen ambushed a car today in central Baghdad carrying employees of the Iraqi organisation running next month’s elections, killing three of the workers while two escaped unhurt, an official from the election body said.

Iraqi authorities set January 30 as the date for the nation’s first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and pledged that voting would take place throughout the country, despite rising violence and calls by Sunni clerics for a boycott.

Iraq's Electoral Commission said today that national elections will be held on January 30.