‘No Iraq elections before handover’

A UN official said today that the elections could not be held in Iraq before US-led authorities handover power to an Iraqi government at the end of June. Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, said top Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who was demanding early direct elections, appeared to accept that time was too short to organise proper polls before the handover.

‘‘It’s not a question of delaying (the handover). It’s finding a new timetable,’’ Fawzi told BBC radio. ‘‘Elections will take place when the country is ready and that will be after the handover of power.’’

In New York, diplomats said UN officials believed elections might be possible before the end of the year, but said a caucus system proposed by the US, at least in the form Washington had wanted, was no longer on the table. However, the envoys believe some transfer of power would take place on June 30, and not be delayed.