New U.N. Envoy Meets Iraqi Leaders

The new U.N. envoy to Iraq called for an end to the violence in the holy city of Najaf as he met with government officials Friday, establishing the world body’s first official presence here since a series of deadly bombings prompted it to leave the country last year.

With a small team, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi met in Baghdad with interim President Ghazi Ajil Yawer and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Qazi appealed “for peaceful settlement, the urgent need to prevent and avoid the loss of human life and respect for international humanitarian law, including access for wounded to medical assistance,” spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The United Nations is still a “high-value” target for attacks in Iraq, which will limit the number of U.N. staff allowed in the country, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday in a report to the U.N. Security Council.

Qazi’s main task is to help Iraqis establish a constitutionally elected government by Dec. 31, 2005. He is expected to attend an Iraqi national conference Sunday, when 1,000 delegates from Iraq’s 18 provinces as well as tribal, religious and political leaders will help choose a 100-member interim national assembly.

Qazi wants the national conference to be as “inclusive of the range of Iraqi opinion as possible in order for its outcome to have maximum credibility among the Iraqi people,” Haq said.

Annan ordered all U.N. international staff to leave Iraq in October after two bombings at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.