With less than two weeks left before Iraq's elections, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday appealed again to the Iraqi government to make the vote as inclusive as possible despite the insecure situation prevailing in the country.
"Let me say that as far as we are concerned, all the technical preparations are ready," Annan told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York upon his return from a visit to Asia and Africa.
"We have done everything that we need to do to help the elections go forward. Obviously the situation is far from ideal," he added, calling the electoral assistance on the ground from the UN team and other international bodies "a really heroic job."
Annan said he spoke to Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Sunday, who indicated readiness to reach out and bring in as many people outside the process as possible.
"Even at this late stage I would urge them to try and bring in as many people as possible and understand that measures are being taken to assure security for the elections," he stressed. " Obviously this is not going to be 100 percent proof, but we will see what these efforts will bring in the next week to ten days."
"We have always maintained that the process has to be as inclusive as possible if the results are going to be accepted by all, and it is not going to be contested," he said.
The UN leader also reaffirmed that he would send more UN staff to Iraq if the security situation improves significantly after the Jan. 30 elections.
"After the process, if the circumstances permit, we will be prepared to expand our activities to other areas beyond the political transition," he noted.
Annan ordered withdrawal of all UN international staff from Iraq in October 2003 after the UN office in Baghdad came under two terrorist attacks. The first attack, taking place on Aug. 19, killed the top UN envoy Sergio de Mello and 21 others.
A small number of UN staff started to return to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities this summer under the leadership of de Mello's successor, Ashraf Qazi. But most staffers of the UN assistance mission to Iraq stay in Jordan.