Any Iraqi government that takes over sovereignty from occupying forces before elections are held must have strictly limited powers and focus on holding polls as soon as possible, a Shi'ite politician said today.
Iraqi Shi'ites have led demands that any sovereign Iraqi government should be directly elected. But a report by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday said it would take at least eight months to organise polls - much later than the planned handover of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30th.
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, one of the leading Shi'ite members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told reporters today that an unelected caretaker government would be acceptable while preparations were made for elections.
"The provisional government which takes authority on July 1st is going to have limited and specific authority," he said.
"This is a caretaker government, this is not a cabinet or a government which can do anything and everything. It's a caretaker government with limited and specific authority, and the main task of that government is to organise elections."
Washington, keen to return sovereignty to Iraqis before the US presidential election in November, said last year that an interim Iraqi government would be handed power on June 30th and full elections would follow by the end of 2005.
But Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, demanded elections sooner, forcing the US-led administration in Iraq to rethink its plans.
A United Nations team led by Mr Lakhdar Brahimi visited Iraq this month to gauge the feasibility of elections, and concluded they could not be held until late 2004 or early 2005.