The Bush administration is taking a fresh look at its plans to turn over power in Iraq by June 30th. While that remains the deadline, Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said it's too early to tell whether it will have to be changed.
The review under way is in response to objections to parts of the current plan by a leader of Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims. The search for a compromise is under way within the administration and in quiet discussions with prominent Iraqis.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani demanded this week that any agreement to let US forces remain in postwar Iraq be submitted to directly elected representatives.
The current US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council agreed last November that the next government could be chosen in regional caucuses, not full-scale elections.
The decision to turn over control to Iraqis by June 30 remains a constant goal, administration officials said. It was not clear how the goal could be sustained, however, if a compromise cannot be reached with the Shiite leader.
"It's too early to tell," Mr Rumsfeld said. "There are going to be ups and downs and zigs and zags in the road."
What has to be worked out, he said, is whether it's more important to have elections and delay transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis or to transfer sovereignty and have elections afterward in support of the power shift.