Shiites propose new Iraq election model

BAGHDAD, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Iraqi Shiite leaders have unveiled a model for elections, with balloting in the relatively secure Shiite and Kurdish areas.

The so-called "Sunni triangle" would be excluded.

The proposal is part of the intensifying scramble for power among politicians before the U.N. announcement this week on whether elections are feasible in Iraq before the transfer of power from U.S. occupation forces t Iraqis at the end of June, the New York Times said Wednesday.

U.S. officials were quick to disagree with the Shiite proposal, saying partial elections would only serve to further alienate the Sunnis, believed to be the main instigators of violence against the United States and its allies.

But leaders of Iraq's Shiites, the country's largest single group, said their plan is the only feasible way to have any kind of elections while still allowing U.S. administrators to transfer authority to the Iraqi people by the deadline, set in an agreement last November.

"There are places secure enough where we can hold elections right now," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a Shiite political leader and a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. "Those places happen to be in the north and in the south."