UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced that it was not feasible to hold elections in Iraq before June 30th, when the United States hands over power in Baghdad.
In endorsing the US position, Mr Annan also told reporters that the June 30th date Washington had fixed for a transfer of sovereignty "must be respected."
But Mr Annan, after a meeting with 46 interested ambassadors, said he was not yet able to propose who should form a caretaker government on June 30th to run Iraq until elections could be held.
The White House asked the United Nations to come up with proposals for Iraq's political future after the country's Shi'ite leaders rebelled against the original US plans.
Mr Annan said he told the ambassadors that "elections cannot be held before the end of June, that the June 30th date for the handover of sovereignty must be respected, and that we need to find a mechanism to create the caretaker government and then prepare the elections sometime later in the future."
Mr Annan spoke briefly to reporters between meetings with his senior envoy, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, who just returned from a series of meetings in Iraq and was making recommendations to Mr Annan.
Mr Annan is expected to give a "window" for elections for a permanent legislature and government to be held earlier than the United States had envisioned, such as between late this year and early in 2005, diplomats said.
He is expected to suggest that the elections be held simultaneously with a referendum for a new constitution.
The original US plan, announced on November 15th, called for a complicated caucus system in Iraq's 18 provinces to select members of an assembly, who would in turn form a provisional government. Elections for a permanent government would then have been held in late 2005.