UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he was preparing for a possible political role for the UN in Iraq and would appoint a special representative shortly.

But he cautioned that despite weekend talks with Iraqi leaders and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, he still had not decided whether to send political staff back to Iraq.

Mr Annan withdrew the staff from Baghdad after the Aug 19 bombing killed 22 people, including his special representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello. He said he would name a replacement “in the not too distant future”.

“We are looking at our own operations, what we can do outside Iraq, what sort of cross-border operations we can do, and circumstances permitting, how we operate in Iraq,” Mr Annan told reporters on his return to New York from a 10-day tour through Latin America.

He said he had also spoken over the weekend to Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the senior British official in Iraq, as well as Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who is this month’s president of Iraq’s Council.

Mr Talabani told him the council would “need UN assistance and advice in implementing the new decisions which have been taken.”—Reuters