U.N. To Carry On Its Mandate In Iraq: Annan

"We will carry on our mandate that has been given to us by the Security Council," Al-jazeera satellite channel quoted the UN head as saying at a news conference, at Stockholm airport shortly before he was due to board a flight to New York.

A U.N. security officer was quoted earlier by media sources as saying that the U.N. would transfer its staff from Baghdad to Jordan.

Foreign U.N. staffers in the northern city of Mosul were evacuated Tuesday evening, August 19, for security reasons to the Iraqi Kurdish town of Arbil, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"International personnel were evacuated to Arbil around 6:00 pm (1400 GMT) as a security measure," an Iraqi U.N. staffer in Mosul told AFP.

The decision came after a truck bomb at the hotel, the main U.N. compound in Baghdad, which killed also the top U.N. official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and a host of foreigners hailing from the United States, the Philippines, Egypt, Canada and Britain, among other nations.