US sticks to Iraq election schedule in January

The White House reiterated on Monday that Iraq will hold election in January as planned despite European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana's statement putting the deadline in doubt.

"We fully expect it will happen in January," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

McClellan said he disagreed with Solana who doubted that Iraq'selection might not be in time.

"If you look at what the United Nations election officials saidjust last week, they talked about the efforts already under way toregister people in Iraq, and they talked about the thousands of registration clerks that are in place and the sites that are in place for people to go and register in Iraq," McClellan said.

As to the insurgency in Iraq, McClellan said the United States will continue to work closely with the Iraqi forces to address thesecurity challenges.

However, Solana gave a different view in Hague.

"The situation from the point of view of security does not givemuch of a hope that will be realized," Solana said, referring to Iraq's election.

"Sixty days gets very close to the electoral time. Therefore that is not a good sign to have elections in time," Solana said.

Source: Xinhua