U.N. Team ‘Totally Shares’ Shiite Calls For Polls

Ayatollah Sistani "is sticking to his position and we share his opinion totally because elections are the only way to bring Iraq out of the tunnel”, team leader Lakhdar Brahimi said after two hours of talks with the Shiite leader.

Lakhdar Brahimi and other members of the team traveled to Ayatollah Sistani’s heavily-guarded house in the holy city of Najaf, witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Brahimi’s statements marks a victory for Ayatollah Sistani, who has spearheaded criticism of U.S. plans to transfer power to an unelected authority in Iraq.

The U.S. wants regional meetings to select a new government, claiming that conditions are not right for elections before the 30 June deadline for handing power over to Iraqis.

The new government is to draft a constitution – with elections postponed until at least the end of2005 .

But Ayatollah Sistani wants an interim constitution to be approved by an elected parliament. He has refused to meet U.S. officials, including the top American administrator, Paul Bremer.

The main Shiite party has given the U.N. team a "scientific study" setting out the case for elections.

Shiites say they make up about60 % of the Iraqi population and correspondents say they want direct elections to reflect their numerical supremacy, according to the BBC News Online.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he hopes to announce a decision on Iraqi election plans by the end of February.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of the southern city of Basra last month to support of Sistani’s demand for direct elections.

And another top Shiite leader wrote to the U.S. President and British Prime Minister Tony Blair questioning their sincerity over the transfer of power to the Iraqis.

Sunni imams joined forces with Shiites in the speeches of Friday prayers in Baghdad and other Iraqi areas.