Iraqi Pm Insists Election Will Go on

The Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, insisted that the general election would go ahead as planned in three weeks' time, despite growing calls for a delay.

He said that only an election could lessen the violence.

Three suicide bombers struck in separate towns yesterday, killing more than 20 people. In Mosul an official of the mainstream Sunni party was assassinated.

There is growing disquiet in Mr Allawi's government about the elections scheduled for January 30.

Many of the bigger Sunni parties have withdrawn from the campaign, leaving the minority community from which the violent insurgency has grown likely to be heavily under-represented in the national assembly.

Even the president, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, has admitted that the violence may make the election unworkable.

Yesterday Mr Allawi dismissed the publicly voiced concern of several of his ministers. "Sometimes these statements don't reflect the point of view of the government," he said. "Sometimes they are personal statements."

He said he understood concern at the violence, which has killed nearly 100 Iraqis this week alone. But: "The government and I personally encourage all Iraqis to participate in this democratic process. We believe the election will consolidate this process and preserve the unity of Iraq."

UN officials in Baghdad to prepare the election say they expect it to go ahead, and, whatever the concern, it would be difficult for the Iraqi government to go back on the date, enshrined in the temporary constitution and endorsed by a UN resolution.

Mr Allawi named several suspected insurgents arrested in recent weeks and said the security forces were "achieving great successes".

"Anyone who tries to derail this process will be the only loser at the end," he said.

But there is no questioning the depth of the security crisis.

Mr Allawi spoke inside a building in the heavily-fortified green zone surrounding the US headquarters in Baghdad. Journalists had to pass through six separate identity or body checks, including sniffer dogs, before being allowed into the room where he was.

A suicide car bomber attacked a police graduation ceremony in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people, including at least 10 policemen. The militant Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility.

The latest government figures show 1,300 Iraqi policemen died in the final four months of last year alone.

Another suicide bomber struck in Baghdad near a US convoy, killing two Iraqi civilians. In Baquba, north of Baghdad, a third car bomb killed six at a checkpoint. Earlier, a police colonel and his driver were shot dead in the town. The US said six soldiers were also killed on Tuesday.

In the northern city of Mosul Omar Mahmoud Abdallah, an official of the Iraqi Islamic party, the mainstream Sunni grouping, was found shot dead. In another incident a prominent Iraqi union leader, Hadi Salih, was shot dead at his Baghdad home.

Wassef Ali Hassoun, the US corporal charged with desertion in a mysterious case in which he left his unit in Iraq and turned up in Lebanon, has again gone absent and appears to have returned to Lebanon, officials said yesterday in Washington.

Bank machines indicated that he made his way to Canada and then back to Lebanon, where he was born. The Marine Corps formally declared him a deserter.

He did not report for duty as required on Tuesday from an authorised leave for new year to visit his family in Utah.

A Marine Corps statement said it had issued "authorisation for civil authorities to apprehend him and return him to military control".