The United Nations has today given its support to calls by the leader of Iraq's Shia Muslim community for early elections, rather than adopting America's plan to hand back sovereignty.

Lakhdar Brahimi, a UN envoy visiting Iraq, announced that the UN supported early elections after a two-hour meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf.

Mr Brahimi said that free elections were the "only way to bring Iraq out of a tunnel.

"Sistani is insistent on holding the elections and we are with him on this 100 per cent because elections are the best means to enable any people to set up a state that serves their interest," he said.

A UN team led by Mr Brahimi has been touring Iraq this week to assess the feasibility of holding direct elections, although there was no comment today on the timescale.

"We are in agreement with the Sayyid [al-Sistani] that these elections should be prepared well and should take place in the best possible conditions so that it would bring the results which the Sayyid wants and the people of Iraq and the UN," Mr Brahimi said.

The prospect of early elections runs against America's 'indirect' plans, which would involve the Coalition Provisional Authority handing power directly to a US-appointed interim administration on June 30, before holding elections in 2005.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the most revered man among Iraq's Shia Muslim community, which makes up about 60 per cent of the population, has been calling for direct elections before the US occupiers hand back sovereignty to Iraqis.

His calls for mass demonstrations over the issue saw thousands of his followers take to the streets in recent months. The cleric's senior religious rank grants him powerful influence within the Shia community.

Mr Brahimi was accompanied by an Arab aide and Iraqi UN guards when he arrived at Ayatollah al-Sistani's well-guarded complex for the two-hour meeting. The 73-year-old leader has not ventured out of his house or met a Westerner for years, his aides said.

Mr Brahimi is due to leave Iraq by tomorrow at the latest, a senior US-led administration official has said. The rest of the UN team has started touring Iraq's provinces.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, is expected to give his opinion on the elections on February 21.

The visiting UN team, which has been in Iraq for the last few days, had earlier cancelled its meetings after the devastating suicide attacks on recruiting stations in Iskandiriyah and Baghdad on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

The attacks continued in Baghdad last night, with a roadside bomb killing two US soldiers with the 1st Airborne Division in a neighbourhood in the west of the capital.

The names of the soldiers were being withheld pending notification of their families.

The deaths briought to 374 the number of Americans who have been killed in hostile action since the beginning of military operations in Iraq. A total of at least 534 Americans have died, including non-combat deaths.

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