Iraq has asked the UN Security Council to condemn the recent spate of bombings and attacks.

Investigators probing the United Nations oil-for-food programme have found evidence of “gross mismanagement” and possible corruption by the agency that oversaw compensation for victims of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq’s deputy UN ambassador said early today.

The UN is hopeful that elections in Iraq can be held on schedule in January 2005 despite escalating violence – but the level of UN electoral assistance will depend on security, the top UN envoy to Iraq says.