IRAQ: Iraq's deputy prime minister has indicated for the first time that the much-heralded elections due in January could be derailed by the country's violent insurgency.
Mr Barham Salih, in an interview with the London-based Guardian newspaper, said the authorities were determined to hold the vote, but admitted they would have to assess the security situation nearer the time.
"Holding free and fair elections on time is an obligation that we have undertaken towards the Iraqi people," Mr Salih said. "Nearer the time, the Iraqi government, the United Nations, the independent election commission and the national assembly will have to engage in a real and hard-headed dialogue to assess the situation."
It is the first time a senior figure in the interim government has acknowledged that the dire security situation in large parts of the country could affect the political process.
Although the elections may be weeks away, Mr Salih said he hoped that by then the violent rebellion which has gripped Iraq since America's invasion last year will have diminished.
There is a growing concern that the minority Sunni community, from which the most extreme elements of the insurgency have emerged, will not take part in the elections. The Muslim Clerics Association has ordered a boycott of the vote and the Iraqi Islamic party, a mainstream Sunni political group, has pulled out of the government.
As US troops widened their control of the insurgent bastion of Falluja yesterday, marines found what appeared to be the mutilated body of a western woman. Only two foreign women are being held by kidnappers: Ms Margaret Hassan (59), the director of the charity Care International, and Ms Teresa Borcz Khalifa (54), a Polish woman who has lived in Iraq for many years.
One officer said he was "80 per cent sure" the body was a western woman. It was found in the street, covered with a cloth soaked in blood.