In a statement released in the city of Najaf, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the head cleric among Iraq's Shiite community, said he wanted the Security Council to guarantee the elections would not be pushed back again.

"The Marjaiya (the religious Shiite authority) wants clear guarantees through a resolution by the UN Security Council on the organisation of elections by the end of 2004, as specified by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan," he said.

Sistani had wanted general elections held before the June 30 transfer of power from the US-led coalition, but a UN report published on February 23 said a "credible" vote could only be held at the end of the year at the earliest.

In his statement, Sistani said that a UN resolution would "assure the Iraqi people that this issue will not be delayed again".

Despite accepting the delay, he insisted that the body to which power will be transferred should focus its efforts on organising elections and avoid tackling other major issues in the transition period.

"The Marjaiya wants the body that will receive power at the end of June to have extended powers in order to prepare transparent and free elections but also urges it to run the country without taking important decisions," he said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's report, which had been requested by Sistani, doomed the November 15 agreement reached between the interim Governing Council and the coalition on the future of the political process, keeping only the date for a power handover.

The United Nations gave no indications as to how or to whom power should be transferred, saying only that such a move would have to come through "consensus".

Sistani voiced fears about the mechanim for transferring power and said "there is wide concern that the parties involved will not succeed in reaching an understanding supported of the Iraqi people."

The US-stalled Governing Council has yet to announce its verdict on the UN report but said Wednesday that it plans to do so next week.

"The council has received the report and decided to submit it for examination to a special committee and they will deliver a detailed opinion on the document and give an answer in writing to the United Nations Secretary General," a member of the executive body, Mohammad Bahr Ulum, told reporters.