UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday advised against holding elections in Iraq before the June 30th US transfer of power to Iraqis, but said the handover of sovereignty must go ahead on that date. Meanwhile, in London, British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw confirmed last night that five of the nine Britons held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay will be returned to the UK within weeks, write Conor O'Clery in New York and Frank Millar in London
Speaking in New York, Mr Annan made no recommendation on how to form a transitional Iraqi government but said: "We need to find a mechanism to create a caretaker government and then prepare the elections sometime later."
In Baghdad, US administrator Mr Paul Bremer confirmed that the date for the transfer of power would not be put back, and said there were "dozens" of methods for selecting a new government, such as a redesigned "caucus" system or partial elections.
At the UN, Mr Anan's special adviser, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, briefed diplomats from 45 nations and the EU on his week-long visit to Iraq to help resolve a dispute between the US and the powerful Shia spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who is calling for early elections.
Technical, security and political considerations prevented early elections, said Mr Annan, who will send detailed recommendations to Mr Bremer in the coming days.
These will centre on "the choice of a transitional mechanism that enjoys the broadest support among Iraqi constituencies, how best to implement such a mechanism, and what role the UN could play with the necessary backing of the Security Council", Mr Annan said.
UN diplomats said the transitional body should be seen as a short-term caretaker with limited power to meet the concerns of Ayatollah al-Sistani, who regards the Iraqi Governing Council as an American puppet. Questions about the fate of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners remained unanswered last night amid confusing signals from Mr Straw and the British Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett.
Announcing the breakthrough after months of British-US negotiations, Mr Straw said the five - Mr Rhuhel Ahmed, Mr Tarek Dergoul, Mr Jamal Al Harith, Mr Asif Iqbal and Mr Shafiq Rasul - would be flown home within the next few weeks. He said it would be for the police to consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activity.
However, Mr Blunkett said he thought no one who is returned "will actually be a threat to the security of the British people". That left the British government facing a potentially explosive public debate about the basis on which the five had been held beyond the protection of United States law or the provisions of the Geneva Convention.
Mr Straw also left unresolved the position of the other four UK detainees.