U.N. Decision Gets Mixed Response in Iraq

Hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also dismissed Annan's recommendation.

"We think that elections can be held before the end of June, and we reject the postponement idea," he said through a representative.

In the al-Sadr stronghold of Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, a mosque preacher told his congregation during Friday's prayer service that Iraqis insist on elections.

"If the United Nations announced that the elections are impossible, we are still demanding the elections and we shall insist on holding them," the preacher, Nasr al-Saedi, said. "The occupiers should know that Iraqis are not weaker than the Vietnamese and when we decide to free our country of them, we shall do it."

However, others on the Governing Council appeared to accept Annan's finding and said they would discuss alternatives after receiving a formal report.

"Elections are a must, but it is impossible right now," said Nasser al-Chadechi, a Sunni Arab. "Now, we have many options to look at with the United Nations and the Iraqi people."

Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd, said Annan's decision was "realistic and expected."

While Annan did not give any recommendations on how to pick a provisional government, he said the United Nations will work with the Iraqis to choose a way that has the broadest possible support.

Opposition from Sistani, the country's most prominent Shiite cleric, derailed a U.S. plan to choose the legislators in regional caucuses, which many Shiites feared would allow the Americans to manipulate the process. Most Governing Council members no longer back the caucus formula.

It was the second time that the elderly, Iranian-born Sistani has forced the Americans to revise their power transfer plans. Last June, Sistani issued a fatwa, or edict, saying the constitution must be drafted by delegates chosen in an election, a process the Americans feared would take too long.

Faced with Sistani's edict, the Governing Council could not decide how to proceed with drafting a new constitution, a key stage of a seven-step process envisaged by Washington to conclude with an elected government by the end of 2004.

With the process deadlocked and the Bush administration under pressure to reduce U.S. casualties in the face of a widening insurgency, the Americans scrapped the seven-point plan in November, advancing sovereignty to June 30 but postponing the first elections until next year. That, too, displeased Sistani.

Shiites are believed to form about 60 percent of the country's 25 million people; their acceptance of a formula is critical if the new Iraqi government hopes to win legitimacy among the population.