Secretary General Kofi Annan mentioned the possibility of such a mission in a July 17 report to the UN Security Council. The United Nations has a special unit to help countries with the voting process.

A four-person team from the UN Electoral Assistance Division will be in Iraq for about two weeks, Eckhard said Friday.

The US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which took charge of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, indicated this week it wants to speed up elections, which are seen as crucial to installing an internationally recognized government in the country.

Iraq's chief US administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said he believes a new constitution could be written, accepted by the Iraqi people in a referendum, and followed by general elections before mid-2004.

In the past, Bremer has said a government could be in place by the end of 2004. His optimism was surprising given that it took the 25-member Governing Council of prominent Iraqis, which the coalition appointed, more than two weeks to agree on a presidency, its first order of business.

Meanwhile, US forces grabbed two "important associates of the former regime" and a bodyguard suspected of protecting top Iraqi fugitives Friday, seizing documents and photographs they hoped would help the search for Saddam Hussein.

Also, a tape attributed to the former dictator urged Iraqis to join the anti-American insurgency and vowed Saddam would return to power "at any moment."

In Jordan, two of Saddam's daughters gave interviews in which they spoke fondly of their father but said they don't know where he is and last saw him a week before the Iraq war started.

About 100 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division carried out simultaneous raids Friday afternoon in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. They captured the two men, who were being tracked for days, without many problems - partly because both were napping in the afternoon heat, commanders said.

The military did not identify the captives, but Lt. Col. Steve Russell called them "important associates of the former regime." Soldiers seized documents and photographs from the houses, but Russell said it was too soon to say how valuable they were.