The UN said on Tuesday that it had decided to dispatch security advisers to Baghdad to study safety provisions in preparation for a possible early return of staff members to Iraq.
Kieran Prendergast, the undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the US ambassador, John Negroponte, in a letter that a team of four military and security experts would be sent to the Iraqi capital within two weeks.
The move could be a first step in the world body's reconsideration of its determination to stay out of Iraq until the scheduled transfer of power to the Iraqis by June 30.
"The return to Iraq of UN international staff is contingent in part on acquiring and upgrading suitable working and living accommodations and enhancing security arrangements," Prendergast's letter read.
"In that connection, there is an early requirement to strengthen our liaison with the coalition forces so that the UN is able, among other things, to supervise facilities upgradings and other security enhancements from a safe interim location in Baghdad," the letter said.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan withdrew all international staff from the country in October after attacks on relief workers and the Aug. 19 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including the mission chief.
The US and some members of the Iraqi Governing Council have been pressing Annan to recommit the UN before the transfer date, but he has insisted on clearer details on what the organization's responsibilities would be and how its workers would be protected.
He is said by his closest aides to be deeply concerned that the UN does not get caught between the emerging Iraqi leaders and the occupation, subject to manipulation by both.
He is said to feel that the perception among some Iraqis that the UN was part of the occupation made it a target, and he is consequently wary of returning staff members to the country until authority passes to Iraq.
In Washington, Adam Ereli, a State Department deputy spokesman, welcomed the trip of UN officials to Iraq and said that they might play a role in US plans to revise its process for selecting the interim legislature that is to take power after June 30.
"The UN has a lot of expertise in electoral processes, in setting up systems, election commissions, election bodies, monitoring elections, helping people set up regulations," Ereli said.
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