BAGHDAD, Jan 12: The foreign ministers of Spain and Iraq called on Monday for the United Nations to return to the US-occupied country as soon as possible to help oversee the upcoming handover of power back to Iraqis.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he still considers the security situation too precarious to risk allowing staff to return. In October, UN international staff were pulled out following two suicide bombings at its headquarters, one of which killed 22 people, and an upsurge in attacks against humanitarian targets.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said after talks with his Spanish counterpart Ana Palacio that Iraq's Governing Council wanted the United Nations to help oversee the process of handing sovereignty back to an Iraqi government by end-June.

"We have called on the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to return to supervise and monitor the political process, the constitutional and electoral process," Zebari said.

Violence has gripped Iraq since US-led forces toppled the government of Saddam Hussein in April, forcing the likes of the United Nations and the Red Cross to withdraw staff.

The occupying forces are attacked daily and another American soldier was killed and two wounded on Monday in a bomb attack on a convoy in Baghdad, the US military said. The attack brought to 343 the number of US soldiers killed in action since the start of the war in March.

Palacio, whose country is one of the United States' closest allies in Iraq, said the international body could not afford to keep its distance and had an essential role to play.

"We share the view on the role that the United Nations has to play, and the fact is you cannot play at a distance - the presence of the UN in Iraq is crucial," she said.-Reuters