UN shrugs off US demands to boost Iraq presence

Iraqi children wave the red communist party flag during its first electoral meeting at al-Shaab Stadium -- previously known as Saddam Stadium -- in Baghdad yesterday. The meeting was held to launch a campaign by the communist party for Iraq's landmark elections next month. PHOTO: AFP

The violence that threatens to mar Iraq's historic January 30 elections showed no sign of abating, with an Italian hostage reported killed and more US and Iraqi troops losing their lives in attacks.

Meanwhile, ousted president Saddam Hussein met his family-appointed legal counsel for the first time since his capture, and was said after the four-hour meeting to be in good health.

In Washington, outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his designated successor Condoleezza Rice pressed for greater UN involvement in next month's elections.

However Secretary General Kofi Annan remained cautious about prospects for augmenting UN staff, saying that "from a technical point of view, we have done all that we need to do."

The world body has an international staff of about 50 in Iraq, including less than two dozen electoral experts working on next month's vote, which has been clouded by mounting concern over security.

And an Islamist group in Iraq claimed it had killed an Italian hostage identified as Salvatore Santoro, Al-Jazeera television reported, saying it had a videotape. In Rome, the foreign ministry said it believed the body was that of Santoro, an Italian national.

Al-Jazeera broadcast pictures of Santoro's passport and showed him sitting bound and blindfold in a ditch with a gun to his head. In separate footage, four masked and armed men were shown reading a statement.

Quoting from the statement, Al-Jazeera said Santoro had been killed after his captors found evidence that he supported the Americans. It did not give further details.

The bodies of two more men apparently executed by insurgents were found, in the area just south of Baghdad near the Sunni rebel stronghold of Mussayeb dubbed the triangle of death, residents said.