UN in talks for Iraqi elections

A UN team met with Iraqi leaders yesterday to discuss the feasibility of early legislative elections and its leader pledged to do “everything possible” to help the country regain its sovereignty.

Meanwhile, insurgents attacked US Army convoys with a roadside bomb and a grenade in two cities on Saturday, killing one and injuring at least three soldiers, witnesses said. A bomb planted inside a police station killed three policemen and injured 11 others on Saturday, officials said.

The United Nations team held talks for about two hours with members of the US-appointed Governing Council at the start of its mission to break the impasse between the United States and the country’s influential Shi’ite Muslim clergy on the blueprint for transferring sovereignty to the Iraqis.

“The UN can only emphasise its wish to do everything possible to help the Iraqi people with all their sects and components to come out from their long plight and to help them regain independence and sovereignty,” said Lakhdar Brahimi, Secretary-General Kofi Annan ’s special adviser on Iraq .

In the latest violence, a US convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the northern city of Mosul, wounding one soldier, witnesses said. A US military official in Mosul, however, said the car was damaged in a road accident and would not comment on injuries.

Also yesterday, a roadside bomb exploded near an Army convoy in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, injuring two soldiers, witnesses said. The US command in Baghdad did not confirm the incident.

On Saturday, a bomb exploded inside a police station, killing three policemen and injuring 11 others, in Suwayrah, 30 miles south of Baghdad .

The UN team, which arrived Saturday, includes an election expert, Carina Perelli of Uruguay. Annan said in a statement Saturday that the UN experts would hold “intensive consultations” with Iraqi leaders and members of the US-led coalition and listen to the views of all Iraqi constituencies.

“I hope the work of this team will help resolve the impasse over the transitional political process leading to the establishment of a provisional government for Iraq,” Mr Annan said.