Iraq cleric halts poll protests

Tens of thousands demonstrated after Sistani's call for early polls

Iraq's leading Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has urged his followers to halt mass protests against US plans for handing over power.

A spokesman for the ayatollah said there should be no more demonstrations calling for early elections until the United Nations rules on the issue.

The ayatollah opposes US plans for an unelected transitional government.

But he has indicated his willingness to compromise if the UN sends a team to assess whether elections can be held.

Ayatollah Sistani's latest pronouncement came after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would announce "shortly" whether the UN was ready to return to Iraq.

The UN pulled its officials out of Iraq in the aftermath of a massive bomb attack on its Baghdad headquarters in August.

On Thursday, a senior UN adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, had talks on Iraq with top officials in Washington, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Mr Brahimi, the former envoy in Afghanistan, is the UN secretary-general's adviser on peace and security.

Few details of his talks in Washington have been released, but one American official said they had discussed the way forward.

Stubborn opposition

Ayatollah Sistani has insisted that the only legitimate government in Iraq will be one elected by the Iraqi people.

But in his latest comments, he was quoted by a representative as saying that no protests should be held until the UN position had become clear.

"After that, we will say our word," his spokesman said.

The BBC's Middle East analyst, Roger Hardy, says that after three and a half decades of dictatorship, the idea of full and free elections has an obvious appeal - especially to the majority Shia, who have long felt excluded from power.

He says that in the face of the ayatollah's stubborn opposition to an unelected government, everyone is being forced to reconsider the options.

At issue is how to choose the 250 Iraqis who will comprise a body known as the transitional national assembly.

In June - according to the timetable the Americans have proposed - that assembly will select an Iraqi government which will take power from the current US-led administration.

The ayatollah says the assembly's members must be elected. The US says that is not feasible and the assembly should be chosen through a series of local meetings in each of Iraq's 18 provinces.

The Shia believe they may not be properly represented without a general election but the Americans say there is not enough time to organise one.

The UN is sending a team to assess security in Iraq in the next few days and the election experts might follow.

However, time is running out, as all sides agree that the handover of power must take place by 1 July.