Annan to meet Bush

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will hold talks with President George W. Bush in Washington today as the United Nations moves cautiously toward sending international staff back to occupied Iraq.

A UN spokesman yesterday called the visit routine but UN officials said Iraq would be high on the agenda. Mr Annan is weighing sending a political team to Baghdad to assess the feasibility of staging elections, with a decision due in the next few days.

The UN leader is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and congressional leaders, the spokesman said. He is scheduled to have lunch with Mr Bush at the White House.

Despite continuing attacks and bombings in Iraq, Mr Annan has signaled he is leaning toward sending political experts shortly to Baghdad.

The team's goal would be to assess the feasibility of electing an assembly that will pick a provisional government to rule the country after June 30, when the US-led occupation is due to return sovereignty to the Iraqi people.

Mr Annan withdrew all international staff from Iraq in October, following two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad. The first, on August 19, killed 22 people, including the chief of mission, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

With the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday this week, the United Nations is not expected to dispatch an electoral team until Saturday at the earliest.

The United States has been urging the United Nations to resume a role in Iraq and help end a stalemate between Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, who demand direct elections, and the US-led occupation authorities, who believe time is too short.

But sending a team does not necessarily mean the world body would try to resolve the impasse. The United States would like UN officials to take another trip to Iraq and mediate between Shi'ites who want direct elections and other factions.

The Bush administration is putting pressure on Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, to mediate for the United Nations and has called him to the White House twice in recent weeks. He so far has refused, but an aide said the pressure on him was enormous.