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.