Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani Calls for Elections By the End of the Year

Iraq's influential Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said today that he would accept an interim government with limited powers in Iraq under a strict time frame and on condition that elections be held by the end of the year.

His statement, issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf, appears to give the United States the breathing room it needs while it comes up with a game plan, in conjunction with the United Nations, for a transfer of sovereignty in Iraq.

However, Sistani's statement implies that he might not support handing over meaningful authority to the U.S. appointed Governing Council.

In his statement, Sistani noted the United Nations had said elections could be held by the end of this year if preparations began immediately.

"The religious authority," he said, "demands clear guarantees like a resolution from the U.N. Security Council that elections will be held by that time, to assure the Iraqi people that elections will not be subjected to more procrastination and delays."

In the statement, as reported by the Associated Press, Sistani said he was concerned that the mechanism for choosing an interim government could be "trapped by the obstacle of ethnic, sectarian and political quotas."

Sistani said the interim government should have strictly limited powers and should prepare Iraq for free elections "without being allowed to take major decisions that could be considered as binding to the elected government."

It was Sistani's first public comment on elections since U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan ruled out a vote by June 30, the date the United States plans to return sovereignty to Iraqis.

Sistani said that although the United Nations had decided an election wasn't feasible before then, its suggestion that the vote could be held by the end of the year "is of great significance."

Washington also has argued that elections could not be held before the transfer of power because of the absence of electoral laws and voter rolls.

"The U.N. estimates somewhere between a year and 15 months. It might be that it could be sped up a little bit," L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, said last week in an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television station. "But there are real important technical problems as to why elections are not possible."

The Bush administration -- facing continued violence against U.S. forces and their allies and eager to end the formal occupation ahead of November presidential elections -- has said the June 30 deadline for the transfer of power and the end of the occupation cannot be changed.

Anthony Shadid reported from Baghdad. Fred Barbash reported from Washington. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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