Plans for Iraq's first free election may be modified to give people more time to vote next month, officials said on a day bombers and gunmen again struck Sunni Muslim towns north and west of the Baghdad.
Responding to a suggestion this week by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that voting could be spread over two or three weeks, the Independent Electoral Commission said it would consider such a proposal if the government were to make it formally.
The Interior Ministry faces a massive task to provide security at thousands of polling stations on January 30, and has endorsed Mr Allawi's idea, saying voting over several days could reduce vulnerable lines in the streets.
Electoral Commission chairman Mr Hussein Hendawi said: "If the government asks us officially, there are technical and legal aspects to consider, but we would study the request."
But in Washington, State Department spokesman Mr Adam Ereli dismissed the idea.
And a source said the State Department was not considering changing its election plans because the idea had little support among Iraqis.
Leaders among the Sunni Arab minority which dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein have said violence by insurgents will make it impossible to campaign and vote in Sunni areas. They have called for a delay or even a boycott.
Meanwhile in the city of Ramadi, was again in turmoil today with masked gunmen roaming streets and battling US troops. Two Iraqis were killed in shooting after a suicide car bomber hit a US checkpoint.
And in Samarra, north of Baghdad, at least six people including two policemen were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a US convoy.