UNITED NATIONS, March 17: Iraqi leaders have agreed to invite a UN team to Baghdad to advise on setting up an interim government before June 30, Britain's UN ambassador said on Wednesday.

An electoral team, led by Lakhdar Brahimi, a senior UN official, went to Iraq last month to study the feasibility of holding elections and to discuss proposals for an interim government when the US-led occupation ends on June 30.

"They've reached agreement to invite the UN," British envoy Emyr Jones Parry told reporters. Mr Brahimi told a news conference on Tuesday that Shia leader Ayatollah Ali al Sistani had sent a written message to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcoming the United Nations.

He quoted the ayatollah as saying: "We do want the UN to play a role in Iraq." The note from Ayatollah Sistani also denied he had anything to do with criticism of Mr Brahimi and the United Nations, most of which came from former exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council who is close to the US Defence Department.

The about-face by Mr Chalabi and others is of concern to the United States. US officials in Baghdad and Washington have asked the United Nations to help give legitimacy to an interim Iraqi government that is to take power by June 30.

Mr Annan and Mr Brahimi last month issued a report saying that proper elections, as Shias wanted, were not possible before June 30 and needed some eight months of preparation after a legal framework was set up for the vote. The report also gave several alternatives for an interim government and said the United Nations would help advise further if asked. - Reuters