NAJAF, Feb 26: Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the leading Shia religioius figure in Iraq, said in a statement released on Thursday that the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution setting a date for general election by the end of the year.

"The Marjaiya (the religious Shia authority) wants clear guarantees through a resolution by the UN Security Council on the organisation of elections by the end of 2004, as specified by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan," the ayatollah said in his statement.

The statement was an informal endorsement of the findings of a UN fact-finding mission on the feasibility of elections that Sistani, the leading cleric in Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community, himself had requested.

Sistani wanted general elections held before the June 30 transfer of power from the coalition, but a UN report published on Monday said a "credible" vote could only be held at the end of the year at the earliest.

Sistani said in the statement that a UN resolution would "assure the Iraqi people that this issue will not be delayed again". Despite his acceptance of the delay, Ayatollah Sistani insisted that the body to which power will be transferred on June 30 should focus its efforts on organising elections and avoid tackling other major issues in the transition period.

"The Marjaiya wants the body that will receive power at the end of June to have extended powers in order to prepare transparent and free elections but also urges it to run the country without taking important decisions," the statement said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's report doomed the November 15 agreement reached between the interim Governing Council and the coalition on the future of the political process, keeping only the June 30 date for a power handover.

However the United Nations provided no indications as to how or to whom power should be transferred, saying only that such a move would have to come through "consensus".

"As concerns the mechanism for the transfer of power, there is wide concern that the parties involved will not succeed in reaching an understanding supported of the Iraqi people," the statement said. -AFP