Leader demands end to election 'stalling'

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A leading Shiite member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council on Sunday demanded no more "stalling" on arranging for elections for a new government.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb near the northern city of Mosul killed an Iraqi, while another bomb south of Fallujah exploded as a U.S. Army convoy passed, witnesses said. There was no report from the U.S. command on casualties.

In an interview broadcast Sunday by Al-Jazeera television, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric and Governing Council member, said the U.S.-run coalition should have begun planning for elections months ago.

Al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, wanted guarantees that "there'll be no more stalling as was the case in the past."

Shiites, believed to comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, are anxious for a quick vote to transfer their numerical superiority into political power after decades of suppression by the Sunni Muslim minority. Sunnis fear a quick vote will further marginalize their community, closely identified with Saddam Hussein's regime.

Some key Shiite figures have signaled they might accept a limited delay in elections if the government that takes power from the coalition June 30 has only limited powers and will arrange a national vote as soon as possible.

The Shiites fear an appointed government might try to postpone elections indefinitely to keep itself in power.

In Tokyo, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said a report on the recent U.N. mission to Iraq would be released Monday in New York with the group's findings on ways to establish an Iraqi government.

Annan said last week the mission concluded that Shiite demands for elections to choose a provisional legislature before June 30 were impossible. However, Annan did not outline any alternatives.

The United States is keen to meet the June 30 deadline to deprive the Democrats of an election issue in the November U.S. presidential election.

The transfer of power will mean a formal end to the U.S.-led occupation, even though U.S. and international troops will remain in Iraq. But Washington hopes that a new Iraqi government will take the steam out of the insurgency once Iraqis regain control of their own country.

On Sunday, the U.S. military announced American soldiers had arrested a pair of Iraqi policemen suspected of membership in Saddam's Fedayeen militia, the ousted dictator's private army. Fedayeen members are believed behind many of the attacks against U.S. soldiers.

The two police officers were arrested Saturday after two Iraqis believed to have orchestrated riots in Beiji in October surrendered and gave interrogators the names of the policemen, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman of the 4th Infantry Division.

In Baghdad, a Sunni Muslim cleric, Sheik Dhamer al-Dhari, was killed by gunmen while walking near his mosque, the Association of Muslim Scholars said. Al-Dhari's half brother is secretary-general of the association, which issued a statement last week cautioning against hasty elections.