UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23: The United Nations would not train judges and prosecutors for a special Iraqi tribunal created to try former Iraqi leaders because it has no mandate to impose death penalty as stipulated by the Iraqi court, a UN spokesman said on Friday.

"The Secretary-General (Kofi Annan) recently stated that United Nations officials should not be directly involved in lending assistance to any court or tribunal that is empowered to impose the death penalty, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference.

"We have no specific mandate for this, he said. "In addition ... we have serious doubts regarding the capability of the Iraqi Special Tribunal to meet the relevant international standards.

Mr Dujarric said the UN had sent a letter to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) earlier this month concerning a request to authorize Prosecutor Carla Del Pontes attendance at a training conference for the judges and prosecutors of the Iraqi court.

The UN informed the ICTY that accepting such invitations would divert Tribunal officials from performing their normal duties at a time when they are aiming to meet mandatory deadlines for completing all outstanding work.

Legally speaking, the United Nations also questioned whether UN officials should be involved in the establishment of a Tribunal that is not a UN body, Mr Dujarric added.