U.S. says Iraq not ready for hand over of power

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The top U.S. administrator in Iraq insisted Thursday there are many ways to choose a new Iraqi government but a June 30 deadline for handing over power remains firm. Hours later, the United Nations backed Washington's claims that a direct vote before then is impossible.\nThe U.N. judgment on elections throws open the debate over how to transfer sovereignty and end the U.S. occupation -- though not the U.S. military presence.\nIraq's Governing Council and powerful Shiite Muslim clerics derailed U.S. plans by demanding an early direct vote.\nIraqi leaders have largely turned against the original American plan to use regional caucuses as the basis for the new government. The Bush administration hopes that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will now endorse an alternative that would expand the Governing Council and hand it power to rule until elections, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.\nSupport is growing within the U.S.-appointed council for expanding the body, several members said Thursday.\nThe council is also due to finish drafting an interim constitution next week, resolving the key questions of federalism and the role of Islam in the government. While calling for any charter to acknowledge the Islamic nature of Iraq, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said the law must be based on secular democratic principles.\nIn New York, Annan did not give any recommendations on how to pick a provisional government. He has reportedly said he won't weigh in on that issue before Feb. 25.\nBut after his special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, briefed representatives of 45 nations and the European Union on his weeklong visit to Iraq, Annan told reporters an early vote was not feasible.