IRAQ: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he hoped to report this week on a plan to transfer power from US-led occupation authorities to Iraqis.
"I hope we will be able to help break the impasse and steer things in the right direction," Mr Annan told reporters.
UN officials have said elections, as preferred by Iraqi Shia leaders, are not possible by the June 30th handover date set by the US, and that a US-proposed system of selecting an assembly by caucuses was also not feasible.
They also do not believe it wise to push back the June 30th handover date as Washington struggles to contain attacks by groups opposed to the US presence.
Mr Annan thus has to recommend other options for a transfer of power before June, which could range from expanding the current Iraqi Governing Council to forming a new body, such as delegates to a conference on devising fundamental laws.
Asked when he would be able to complete the report, Mr Annan said, "I will be able to do that before I travel," a reference to a trip on Friday to Japan.
Meanwhile, Kurdish leaders in the northern autonomous area of Iraq are refusing to disband their military forces, the peshmerga, and are pushing for a veto over any deployment of the Iraqi army in their region.
Kurdish officials are proposing that the 50,000-60,000 fighters controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic party, both of which have a seat on the Governing Council, should be transformed into a regional self-defence force similar to the US National Guard.
The proposal comes amid alarm in the Kurdish areas at the suicide bombings in Irbil, and the violence in neighbouring Sunni Arab areas. It also highlights the problems faced by US and British administrators trying to find common ground among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups.
Mustafa Sayid Qadir, the deputy commander of the PUK's peshmerga, said: "After the Irbil attacks, security has become our number one concern.
"Our history has taught us the risks of leaving ourselves defenceless."
The new force would be recruited, trained and commanded locally. It would not be deployed outside the Kurdistan federal region, the boundary of which still has to be decided, without the approval of the Kurdish parliament.
Kurds want a provision for the new force in the interim constitution, which must be finalised by the end of the month.
They are also insisting on the inclusion of a federal state under which they will retain many of the powers of self-rule they have had for the past 13 years.
A roadside bomb killed a US soldier in northern Iraq, the US military said yesterday, the third such killing in less than 24 hours.