Bush and Allawi discussed obstacles to Iraqi vote: report

[Barrett808]

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called US President George W. Bush following Monday's spate of car bomb attacks in Iraq to discuss the existing obstacles to the January 30 Iraqi elections, a report said.

Officials were quoted in The New York Times report stressing Allawi at no time suggested that the election be delayed. "There was no substantive conversation about the delay," an unnamed senior official said, adding that the Iraqi leader "wasn't even wobbly" about the issue.

However, the daily said other US and Iraqi officials interpreted Allawi's call as a sign that he is worried about his own party's prospects in the election and may be preparing the ground to make the case for a postponement of the vote.

"Clearly the thinking on this is still in motion in Baghdad," a senior administration official told The New York Times late Monday, adding that Bush, who insists that a delay would mean giving in to Iraqi insurgents, "is holding firm."

US officials were reluctant to provide details of Allawi's discussion with Bush but said it dealt with security issues and the ferocity of the insurgency.

"It was a discussion about the impediments," said an official who reviewed a transcript of the call. "But no one suggested the impediments could not be overcome."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20050104/pl_afp/usiraqbushallawi

[Benhurst]

1. Not to worry. I'm sure Diebold has matters in hand.