U.N.'s new Iraq envoy visits HQ

UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to Iraq Wednesday had his first briefings at United Nations World Headquarters in New York.

A U.N. spokeswoman said Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, currently Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, will be shuttling between New York and Washington, for the next couple of weeks. He was named to the post Monday.

The spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said the secretary-general intended to send Qazi to Iraq as quickly as possible, circumstances permitting, and predicted he should be able to deploy with a small team by late July or early August.

Okabe said the exact timetable for the new envoy's deployment will depend on the overall security environment in Iraq, on the necessary arrangements for appropriate facilities, and security arrangements with the multinational force, which still need to be finalized.