UNITED NATIONS, April 28: Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday said US actions in Iraq were worsening the situation and called for negotiations to help calm the situation.

"It's definitely time now for those who prefer restraint and dialogue to make their voices heard," he said, a day after his Iraq envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, warned the security situation was hampering plans for Iraq's political future.

"Violent military action by an occupying power against the inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse," he said at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York.

"There is nothing cowardly or faint-hearted about this approach," Mr Annan said. "It takes courage and dogged determination to work for peace in a violent world." Kofi Annan said Mr Brahimi's briefing to the UN Security Council on Tuesday was a "very sober assessment" of the "deteriorating" situation in the country.

Mr Brahimi warned of the Fallujah standoff: "Unless this standoff is brought to a resolution through peaceful means, there is great risk of a very bloody confrontation." He said the continuing bloodshed had raised the question of "whether a credible political process is even viable under such circumstances", but said the international community had "no alternative" but to make Iraq work.

Lakhdar Brahimi has been tasked with helping to craft an interim Iraqi government to take power on June 30 when the US-led occupation will formally come to an end. -AFP