Annan rules out quick return for UN to Iraq

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10155970.htm

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday that Iraq was still too dangerous for U.N. international staff and that they would operate from a headquarters in Cyprus instead.

Despite pressure from the United States and others to return to Iraq, Annan in a 26-page report to the Security Council, said U.N. staff would make only periodic trips to Iraq and that relief aid would get in through "cross-border" operations.

He also announced the appointment of New Zealander Ross Mountain as the temporary director of the U.N. team.

Mountain is now head of the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva. He will become the deputy special representative for Iraq after Annan appoints a new head of mission to replace Sergio Vieira de Mello, one of 22 people killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

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