US general warns over Iraq poll

Extra US troops will not go to Mosul, Brig Gen Hamm claims

The US commander in northern Iraq has told the BBC that violence in Mosul is undermining efforts to hold elections in the city on 30 January.

Brigadier General Carter Hamm said that elections could not be held under present security conditions.

Describing the situation in Mosul as "tenuous", he said the US and Iraqi authorities "have a lot of work to do".

At least 57 Iraqi security troops have been killed in recent days, and a string of police stations bombed.

A wave of attacks by insurgents began in early November, in the wake of the US-led assault on Falluja.

The police force in Mosul has been devastated by a series of bomb attacks, with three quarters of police no longer showing up for work.

The militant group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has reportedly claimed responsibility for the killing of 17 security personnel whose bodies were found on Saturday.

Strategy challenged

Brig Gen Hamm said that elections could not be held in all parts of Mosul under present conditions.

He described the local forces as "the cornerstone" of the US and Iraqi strategy for policing elections.

"Without the numbers of Iraqi police that we would like to have it significantly increases the level of difficulty of establishing the environment we need for elections," Brig Gen Hamm said.

Iraq's electoral commission has insisted that the nationwide election will go ahead as planned on 30 January.

Police stations lie in ruins in the northern Iraqi city

The vote for a transitional assembly will lead to the writing of a constitution. Full elections for a new government are due by the end of 2005.

Brig Gen Hamm insisted that no more US forces would be drafted into Mosul, where troops have renewed street patrols and house-to-house operations against suspected insurgents after a long period of relative quiet.

"Clearly we need more Iraqi forces to counter the shortfall right now," he said.

"But what we need more than forces is clear intelligence."