U.N. Team Meets Iraqi Officials

The meeting came as one U.S. soldier and four Iraqis were killed in separate attacks in the turbulent country.

After the meeting, Lakhdar Brahimi, senior advisor to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said the world body will labor on Iraq’s behalf as the country moves out of the U.S.-led occupation and into sovereignty.

"The United Nations reconfirms its desire to do all it can to help the Iraqi people out of the long ordeal and restore independence and sovereignty," Brahimi was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

"We are confident that Mr Brahimi and the team will advise us, allowing us to make a decision in the interest of the Iraqi people," said the current president of the interim Governing Council, Mohsen Abdul Hamid.

But not all 25 members of the Governing Council attended the meeting. At least two, Shiite politician Ahmad Chalabi and Shiite leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, sent representatives.

Annan has charged the team, which arrived Saturday, to examine whether elections can be organized before the end of June2004 .

U.S. officials argue that it is impossible to arrange a fair and democratic vote in the time available in a country suffocated by decades of dictatorship and lacking the necessary electoral infrastructure.

But revered Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani has rubbished their plans for an unelected transitional government and spearheaded demands for snap polls.

The transitional government, according to the U.S. plans, should take power by regional caucuses selected by the American authorities.

In the British-controlled southern port city of Basra, meanwhile, Prince Charles strolled around one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces to inspect British troops and sip traditional Arabic coffee with local dignitaries.