Two more soldiers die as US awaits Annan decision

Two more American soldiers were killed by roadside bomb in Iraq today.

The deaths near Khaldiyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, brought to 545 the number of US service members who have died since President George Bush launched the Iraq war on March 20.

Most of the deaths have occurred after Bush declared an end to active combat on May 1.

Rebels also fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an American convoy in Khaldiyah but the projectile missed, witnesses said.

With casualties mounting in an election year, the Bush administration would like to transfer political power to the Iraqis by the end of June and shift more security responsibility to the US trained Iraqi force.

President Bush wants to end the occupation well ahead of the November presidential election in the United States to minimise Iraq as a campaign issue. However, the formula for establishing a new government remains in dispute.

US and Iraqi officials were awaiting an announcement later today by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the feasibility of holding elections before June 30, as demanded by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and others in the influential Shiite clergy.

The Bush administration hopes Annan will say that elections are impossible by June 30 and endorse the idea of extending and expanding the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council so it can take interim control of the country on July 1.

In an interview with a Japanese newspaper today, Annan said elections were essential in Iraq but they could probably not be held before the transfer of power.

“There seems to be a consensus emerging that elections are essential and everyone would want elections. But at the same time, there seems to be a general acceptance of the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election between now and the end of June,” Annan said.