World

U.N. Eyes Iraq Election Dispute

January 21, 2004 / 4:07 PM EST / CBS/AP

The United Nations is close to backing an American and Iraqi request to deploy experts who would assess whether Iraq could hold elections by May for a transitional government, U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press.

Iraqi leaders and the Coalition Provisional Authority want the U.N. team to investigate whether elections can be held for a transitional legislature set to take power by June 30.

A dispute over the U.S. transition plan has triggered large protests and threatened the schedule for handing sovereignty back to Iraqis.

Iraq's most prominent Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has demanded direct elections to choose a provisional government. But the U.S.-led coalition wants to adhere to a handover plan agreed to on Nov. 15 that calls for caucuses to choose a provisional assembly.

Also Tuesday, coalition and Iraqi officials said the coalition may turn over sovereignty to the Governing Council if al-Sistani sticks to his demand for early legislative elections.

Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers and seven other people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near the northern city of Mosul. The explosion took place as three American vehicles were passing, but the force of the blast hit two civilian cars as well, says CBS News Reporter Lisa Barron.

In other developments:

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Bush defended the Iraq war, which has claimed more than 500 American lives. "Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day," he said. No weapons or advanced programs have yet been found.

On Tuesday night, armed Iraqi guards of a private company accidentally shot and killed an Iraqi policeman, Lt. Ahmed Mufeed, said in the northern city of Kirkuk, Gen. Shakir Sherko, the chief of the city police, said.

Kuwait informed a U.S. envoy it may reduce Iraq's $12 billion to $15 billion in debts, but did not reveal by how much. The Bush administration is trying to get countries to forgive much of Iraq's $120 billion in IOUs.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defended the U.S.-led coalition's decision to go to war in Iraq and lobbied for international support in that country's postwar rebuilding at the World Economic Forum, where Iraq weighed heavily for a second year. "I am in no doubt that if we had sat on our hands and not acted, the world would be today a much more dangerous place," he told a packed early session.

Poland pledged that it would continue its role in Iraq, where it joined the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein and now heads an multinational peacekeeping force including some 2,400 Polish soldiers in south-central Iraq.

Sending Japanese troops to Iraq is consistent with the nation's pacifist constitution, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday, rejecting allegations that Tokyo's largest and most dangerous deployment since World War II is illegal. Japan's constitution, adopted in 1947 during the U.S. postwar occupation of the country, renounces the use of force.

The BBC plans to broadcast a previously unseen interview tonight with Dr. David Kelly, the weapons expert caught up in the fight over weapons of mass destruction who committed suicide and plunged Tony Blair's government into crisis. Tony Blair's government is bracing itself for the results of investigation over the death of the scientist, to be released next week.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan received the request for a U.N. team during a Monday meeting with leaders of the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. He said he supported the idea but reiterated that security for such a team was a key concern.

On Tuesday, one U.N. diplomat said approval for an election team could come by week's end. Another agreed that was a possibility, but said the decision might not be announced until a few days later.

The team would head to Iraq soon after that, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

The U.N. Security Council, meeting late Monday with Annan and the Iraqis, unanimously supported the idea of an election team, further pressuring him to make a decision.

At a news conference Monday, Annan said his primary concern was guaranteeing the team's safety. The secretary-general ordered all international staff to leave Iraq in October following two bombings at U.N. headquarters — including one on Aug. 19 that killed top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.

At the meeting, the coalition and the Iraqis promised to provide security. Those attending included the senior U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer; his British deputy, Jeremy Greenstock; and Governing Council members.

On Tuesday, Governing Council members met with Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington to discuss the dispute over transferring power.

"We want refinements that make sense and get the support of all the parties," Powell said.

Annan has said he recognizes time is running out. The experts would have to finish their work within weeks because Iraq begins implementing basic laws for the handover and transition by the end of February. Elections would have to be held by the end of May at the latest.

Mouwafak al-Rabii, a Shiite, told the AP that al-Sistani would accept up to a six-month delay in elections if U.N. experts conclude they cannot be held before the transfer of power. The council could function as a government until elections are held.