Iraqi politicians gave mixed reviews yesterday to a UN recommendation against early elections but said they would await the details before deciding how best to form a new government to take power from the US-led coalition after June 30.

　　Iraq's top Shiite leader, who disrupted the American plan for the handover by calling for a direct vote, reportedly said he would accept only a short delay in elections and argued that any non-elected administration must have strictly limited powers.

　　Asked in an interview with German newsmagazine Der Spiegel how long a delay he would accept, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani replied that "it must not take long."

　　Yesterday, several hundred Shiites demonstrated in al-Sistani's hometown of Najaf in support of his call for quick polls.

　　"Yes to al-Sistani, yes to elections," the protesters shouted.

　　UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday backed Washington's claims that a direct vote before the June 30 deadline is impossible. But he did not offer alternatives to help resolve the debate on how to transfer sovereignty among Americans, Iraq's Governing Council and powerful Shiite Muslim clerics, who derailed US plans by demanding an early direct vote.

　　US administrator L. Paul Bremer insisted on Thursday that the handover will take place by June 30. The favored US option is to expand the existing 25-member Iraqi Governing Council.

　　The Iraqi National Congress, whose Shiite Muslim leader Ahmad Chalabi is a member of the Governing Council, said yesterday that elections were still possible before June 30 and dismissed Annan's finding as a nonbinding opinion.

　　"We also said before the UN delegation came to Baghdad that we are not obligated to their opinion. This is after all an Iraqi issue and we must solve it ourselves and we will take them as adviser," INC spokesman Entifadh Qanbar told The Associated Press.

　　Hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also dismissed Annan's recommendation. "We think that elections can be held before the end of June and we reject the postponement idea," he said.

　　However, others on the Governing Council appeared to accept Annan's finding and said they would discuss alternatives after receiving a formal report.

　　"Elections are a must but it is impossible right now," said Nasser al-Chadechi, a Sunni Arab council member.

　　Meanwhile, two Japanese navy ships left for Kuwait yesterday, carrying vehicles and equipment for troops taking part in the country's controversial mission to Iraq.

　　Sailors waved their white caps from the decks and relatives wept on the quay as the 8,900-ton Osumi left the port of Muroran in the northern island of Hokkaido escorted by the destroyer Murasame, beginning the navy's involvement in a deployment that critics say violates Japan's pacifist constitution.

　　The two ships are expected in Kuwait early next month.

　　(The Associated Press)