Other developments in Iraq on Sunday

A U.S. helicopter crashed in the Tigris river while searching for a missing soldier on Sunday, and the aircraft's two crew members were missing, the military said. It did not say what caused the crash of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter, attached to the 101st Airborne Division. The helicopter was searching for a soldier missing when the boat he was in capsized earlier Sunday while on patrol.

U.S. troops arrested nearly 50 people Sunday in raids in the Sunni Triangle after attacks in the volatile region killed six American soldiers. Most of the arrests occurred in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where 46 people were detained in a series of raids.

Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division also seized 220 hand grenades in a raid on a house in the town of Mukayshifa, located south of Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit. The raids in the Sunni heartland followed a series of bombings and attacks Saturday in which six soldiers were killed.

A roadside bomb exploded Sunday near a U.S. patrol in Baghdad, but a U.S. soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were no U.S. casualties.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to announce this week whether to send a team to Iraq to assess if early polls are possible. Washington hopes that the involvement of the United Nations will help break the deadlock and satisfy the Shiites.

-- The Associated Press