Bremer: U.S. awaiting U.N. plan for handover

The U.S. administrator in Iraq said on Sunday the United States was awaiting a U.N. recommendation for the handover of sovereignty, still insisting it take place by June 30 as President Bush wants.

In a pair of interviews on Sunday talk shows, L. Paul Bremer would not say which of “literally dozens” of proposals he thought would be put forward by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who visited Iraq late last week to assess calls for an early vote.

Speaking from Baghdad, Bremer signaled some willingness to move up proposed national elections, slated under the U.S. plan to begin Jan. 31, 2005, perhaps to December of this year.

“If we can do it sooner and have it be legitimate and if the U.N. and we agree that that can be done then that’s not a problem if it’s the end of the year or early January,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

But Bremer insisted elections cannot be conducted before the June handover date set by Bush, who faces what could be a fierce re-election battle against a Democratic opponent in November. Bush has come under increasing attack for his handling of the Iraq war from his likely challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

“There is general agreement that there is not time to hold elections in the time frame of June. Indeed I think that will be the conclusion of the U.N.,” he said.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Bremer added: “We’ve said all along we’re open to alternatives. We want to stick with the date.”

‘Great seriousness’
Brahimi is to report back to the Iraqi Governing Council “hopefully in the next week or 10 days,” Bremer said. “We will look at that advice with great seriousness.”

The call for an early vote, spearheaded by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential religious authority for Shiites, has derailed the U.S. plan to hold caucuses for electing a transitional assembly and raised questions over how to pick such a body before June 30.

The Bush administration turned to the United Nations for help after largely bypassing the world body as it proceeded with the Iraq war.

At the United Nations, officials have said it was possible elections might be scheduled before the end of the year and that the caucus system proposed by the United States, at least in the form Washington had wanted, was no longer on the table.

However, the envoys said some transfer of power would take place on June 30, and not be delayed until after elections.

Brahimi said on Friday the credibility of elections was more important than timing.

Bremer acknowledged the new plan “may be different from the caucus plan. It may be a modified caucus plan. It may be some form of partial election. It may be some mechanism of a national conference.”

But, he said on CNN, “We believe June 30 is a date that can be hit and will be hit.”

Bloody week
The U.S. administrator in Iraq spoke after one of the bloodiest weeks since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein on April 9. Bremer pinned much of the blame for the continued attacks on Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom U.S. officials say is an Islamic militant with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and plotting to ignite civil war in Iraq.

“This terrorist takes clear credit for these attacks,” Bremer said, adding U.S. authorities were conducting “a major campaign to catch him,” believing Zarqawi was still in Iraq.