U.N. Jumps Into Iraqi Vote Flap

The United Nations will send a team to Iraq to help its political transition in anticipation of the turnover of power there June 30, Secretary General Kofi Annan told President Bush on Tuesday.

The two men met in the Oval Office, where Mr. Bush said, "I'm upbeat and optimistic about the future of the world." He said the United Nations has a vital role in Iraq.

Annan said the U.N. team would work with the Iraqis "in finding the way forward" and would talk to as many Iraqis as possible to "steer things in the right direction."

"I believe that the stability in Iraq is in everyone's interest. The U.N. does have a role to play," Annan said.

He noted that there are differences in Iraq about how to establish a provisional government, and said the U.N. team would try to help resolve those issues.

The Bush administration is hoping Annan's delegation to Baghdad can find a formula to overcome Shiite grumbling over U.S. plans for a transition to civilian rule July 1.

The U.N. team is to examine whether it is possible to organize early elections as demanded by Shiite Muslim clergy, or whether a provisional government should be set up through other mechanisms.

The United States is hoping the U.N. intervention could break a deadlock between its coalition authority in Iraq and a powerful Islamic cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani who is leading the call for early elections.

U.S. officials fear early elections could lead to greater violence and want members of a new legislature to be named in regional caucuses. The legislature would in turn choose a new government to take power by July 1, formally ending the U.S.-led occupation.

The U.S. is also worried that Iraq lacks the infrastructure for an election — a formal census of the country would be needed first, officials say. In addition, there are fears that in the current unstable environment, former Baath party members might win the elections.

Shiites comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's population, but were repressed during the rule of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government.

Al-Sistani's resistance already forced changes in plans for Iraq's transition: his reservations were behind a shift in November to the current timetable, from one in which the interim Iraqi Governing Council held more power.

The meeting between Annan and Mr. Bush marks a shift from the U.S. position immediately after the war, in which the U.N. was relegated to a minor role in determining Iraq's political future.

"The secretary general is clearly trying to strike a balance between getting the U.N. involved in Iraq and identifying the organization too closely with the United States," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk. "Annan has been firm about his decision to have the Iraq election team report to him and not to the U.S.-led coalition."

"His meetings with the Bush Administration are designed to make sure that his authority is maintained," Falk said.

Annan also wants to be sure the experts he is sending to Iraq can be protected from the violence that has bedeviled U.S.-led reconstruction efforts.

The United Nations pulled out of Iraq last October after two bombings at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and an upsurge in attacks against humanitarian targets. In the first suicide bombing, in August, 22 people, including Annan's special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, were killed.

Annan brings with him to Washington an agenda that also includes trying to find a solution to Cyprus' division and planning for a donors' conference on Liberia scheduled for Friday in New York, a U.S. official said.

On Cyprus, after years of stalemate, Annan is promoting a proposal to resolve a 30-year dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots over Turkish troops' occupation of about 40 percent of the island nation.

Liberia is emerging from a destructive civil war that was settled last August with U.N. intervention. The African country is in desperate economic and social condition.

Possibly on the agenda, as well, is Annan's request for $600 million from the United States over 20 years to help finance the rebuilding of the United Nations.

Mr. Bush's budget request leaves it to the United Nations to pursue a loan at going market rates, which the United States would guarantee with $6 million in default insurance.

Also, Annan may lobby for U.S. support for peacekeeping operations in Burundi and Ivory Coast. The administration has been reticent about the two African projects.