UN Deals Blow to Bush Administration

The United Nations' interim envoy to Iraq has ruled out an imminent return of foreign staff to Baghdad.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had pulled all non-local staff out of Iraq last October amid crumbling security and an August bomb attack at the UN's Baghdad offices which killed 22 people, including his top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

In another possible delay to ending the US occupation, Annan released a report recommending that elections be postponed at least until the beginning of 2005.