Allawi vows Iraq violence will not stop elections

IRAQI Prime Minister Iyad Allawi yesterday said elections would be held on schedule in January despite a surge in violence and more than a score of hostages under threat of death from insurgents.

“We definitely are going to stick to the timetable of elections in January next year,” Allawi told a news conference after talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. More than 20 people were killed in car bomb attacks yesterday while Islamist militants threatened separately to kill 10 people employed by a Turkish-US business and two Americans and one Briton.

Hundreds of people have died in the past two weeks raising doubts that elections could go ahead.