Four Iraqis were killed in a US raid yesterday in northern Iraq against a suspected hideout of high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's government. US officials said they were investigating whether two of Saddam's sons were among the dead.

　　The raid at a house in the northern city of Mosul sparked a shootout between members of the 101st Airborne Division and gunmen holed up inside the compound, which later burned to the ground, officials said.

　　The identities of the dead were not certain, said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. But officials said they were trying to determine whether Saddam's elder sons, Uday and Qusai, were among the dead.

　　Both were below only Saddam in importance in the former Iraqi government, officials have said.

　　The house belonged to a cousin of Saddam who was a key tribal leader in the region. Mosul residents said the American soldiers were looking for Uday and Qusai but Pentagon officials said they could not confirm that.

　　The United States has offered a US million bounty and US million for each of his sons.

　　Also yesterday a US soldier was killed and another wounded in an ambush along a dangerous road north of Baghdad in the "Sunni Triangle," the US military reported.

　　Despite the fightings, a delegation representing Iraq's new Governing Council attended a UN Security Council session yesterday, welcomed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

　　Four months after diplomacy fell apart inside the Security Council over war in Iraq, Annan, his special envoy and members of the newly formed Iraqi group addressed the council yesterday and discuss both the high and low points of postwar life for Iraqis.

　　The backdrop of the meeting is a toughly worded report Annan delivered to the Security Council on Monday in which he warned the United States that "democracy cannot be imposed from the outside."

　　Annan also noted concerns about the US treatment of Iraqi detainees and the failure to improve security in Baghdad.

　　Annan's report offers UN help to Iraqis in defining the priorities and policies that will shape the future of the country. But throughout the report, Annan emphasized the importance of Iraqi sovereignty. "There is an overwhelming demand for self-rule and democracy cannot be imposed from the outside."