“The council is the one and only body to decide whether to accept or rebuff the recommendations,” Abdul Hamid

Additional Reporting By Namir Al-Hijazi, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, February 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq’s Interim Governing Council will not abide by the recommendations of a U.N. fact-finding mission, which arrived in Baghdad late Saturday to assess whether direct elections can be held before the United States hands sovereignty back to Iraqis in June, the Council’s rotating president said Saturday, February 7.

Speaking at his first press conference since he held the rotating presidency February 1, Mohsen Abdul Hamid said the Council, however, will keep in mind the U.N. advice “for the welfare of the Iraqi people”.

He asserted that the council “is the one and only body to decide whether to accept or rebuff the recommendations in coordination with the civil authorities [the U.S.-led occupation]”.

The dozen U.N. experts will stay in Iraq for up to 10 days, a visit shielded by rigorous security, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I am very pleased to announce that my fact-finding team has now arrived in Baghdad and is about to begin intensive consultations with Iraqi leaders and the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority)," U.N. chief Kofi Annan said in New York.

The team will study the feasibility of organizing direct polls before June 30, rather than handing self-rule to a transitional assembly selected by provincial caucuses as envisioned by the U.S.-led coalition.

"The U.N. team will endeavor to meet with representatives of all constituencies and listen to all Iraqi views and perspectives, without excluding any," Annan said in a statement.

It is the first full-scale U.N. mission in Iraq since expatriate staff left last October the chaos-mired country following two bombings at its Baghdad headquarters, that killed top envoy Sergio Vieira De Mello and 21 others.

Sources close to the world body said the team is unlikely to move around the war-battered country unless absolutely necessary.

Annan ordered the mission after the occupation failed to broker a compromise deal with the revered spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, over its tight timetable for handing over self-rule to a transitional government.

Tens of thousands of Shiites took to the streets on Monday, January 19, to support Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's unrelenting call for direct elections and rejection of U.S. Iraq overseer Paul Bremer’s plans in the second mass rally in four days.

The U.S.-led occupation in Iraq remained tight-lipped Saturday about its arrival and refused to discuss any security arrangements for the team.

"I will not be commenting at all on the schedule or the activities of the U.N. team. All those questions I refer to the U.N.," occupation spokesman Dan Senor told a Baghdad news conference.