UNITED NATIONS, Aug 6: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday that the US-led multinational force must provide protection to his special envoy and his team for Iraq when he goes to Baghdad in August since no country has offered troops for the proposed UN protection force.

Mr Annan said that Ashraf Jehangir Qazi of Pakistan would take up his post as UN special representative in Iraq before a national conference of political, religious and civic leaders got under way in mid-August

He said: "We have been in negotiations with about half a dozen countries, and of course the Saudis have also raised the idea of an Islamic force that will go in and protect the UN staff and eventually take over from the multinational force and work with the Iraqis."

However, he said that so far nothing had materialized. "Even if that is going to happen, I think it is going to take some time. But we are talking of what happens next week with my special representative and the team, and there we will have to rely on the multinational force to protect them," he added.

"We haven't had much success attracting governments to sign up for the dedicated force to protect the UN personnel in Iraq, and our property, so for the time being, for practical measures we have no other choice but to rely on the multinational force. This is the way we are going."

Asked about the postponement of the national conference on Iraq as suggested by the United Nations, Mr Annan said: "We did tell them (Iraqi government) that it was important that the conference be as inclusive as possible, and every attempt should be made to bring into the tent some of those outside the tent.

"There may be elements whom you will never be able to persuade to bring under the tent, but there are others, and they needed to have an inclusive process. "We were on the phone with the Iraqi prime minister, the president, and Lakhdar Brahimi was also on the phone with them, and also talked to the leaders, with (Fouad) Massoum, who was organizing the conference, the Chairman of the PrepCom.

"And we went through the reasons why a delay we felt would be helpful. We felt it was more important to have a well-organized and inclusive process, rather than organizing it on time, because you may organize it on time but get it all wrong. And we are continuing the efforts, working with them to expand the participation," said the secretary-genearl.

PRESSURE ON SUDAN: Kofi Annan said the United Nations will keep up the pressure on the Sudanese government until it meets its commitments to disarm the militias responsible for deadly attacks in the troubled Darfur region.