US reaffirms Iraq transfer date

Brahimi will pass on his recommendations to Kofi Annan

The chief US administrator for Iraq has confirmed that the target date of 30 June for the proposed transfer of power to Iraqi civilians still holds.

Paul Bremer said the formula for setting up a new Iraqi government might change, but the date remained firm.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to make a statement shortly on whether he believes elections are possible in time for the handover of power.

This has been the demand of the country's influential Shia leaders.

But UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is thought to have advised against early elections, UN diplomats say, and Mr Annan is expected to back his report.

Mr Bremer told reporters in Baghdad that he expected President George W Bush to win re-election in November and that there would be no change in American policy in Iraq.

"The American people understand the importance of what we have done here," he said.

But he insisted he would wait until the UN Secretary General made his announcement before discussing ways to form a new government.

Shia demands

Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, wants elections to take place before 30 June.

POWER TRANSFER TIMELINE Feb 2004: Fundamental Law (provisional constitution) to be introduced May, 2004: Selection of Transitional National Assembly (TNA) June 2004: TNA to take power; Coalition Authority and Governing Council to dissolve March 2005: Constitutional Convention elected to draft new constitution Dec 2005: New constitution; elections and appointment of new government November agreement

But the US has made clear its belief that there is no time to organise a free and fair election process by then.

Washington wants regional meetings to select a new government, which in turn would draft a constitution - with elections postponed until at least the end of 2005.

Mr Brahimi spent a week in Iraq discussing the feasibility of early elections and the ways the UN could help.

His team was sent at the request of the US, following widespread opposition to the plan led Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Mr Brahimi is due to brief the UN Security Council in New York.

He will stress that the period between the hand-over of power from the US-led coalition and the polls should be as brief as possible, the UN diplomats said.

"The United Nations will propose, as a result of studying the needs for elections, what is the timing that the elections can be held," Mr Brahimi told reporters before leaving Baghdad.

Annan interview

Mr Annan - who will make final recommendations on the issue - himself hinted that the early poll "may not be possible".

In an interview with Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper published on Thursday, Mr Annan said that "there seems to be general acceptance of the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election between now and the end of June".

"But there will have to be better organised elections later on," Mr Annan told the newspaper.

The UN diplomats say it is still unclear which option Mr Annan and Mr Brahimi will recommend for the interim government - whether enlarging the current US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council or devising a new body.